Chapter 6

Just Hanging

TK lied in bed, eyes still closed, feeling the sunlight on his face. He didn't want to move yet; he was too comfortable. He heard Davis mutter to himself. Davis talked in his sleep a lot. It was annoying at first, but TK learned to deal with it. He opened his eyes and stretched out an arm to the floor. Then he rolled over to his side, looking at Davis.

He blinked, trying to get his eyes to focus. He could be wrong, but it looked like there was a squirrel nibbling on Davis' ear. TK sat up. Davis made noises, but didn't appear to be awake.

Smothering a snicker, TK whispered, "Davis?"

No response.

TK got up and tiptoed over to Davis. The squirrel didn't appear to be bothered at all. There seemed to be peanut butter smothered on his pillow and on his hair. "Ah . . . Davis?"

"Stupid TK . . ." he mumbled and rolled over. The squirrel was a little annoyed at the disturbance, but kept on licking the salty peanut butter.

"Davis . . . there's like a squirrel . . . on your head."

A few seconds past by.

"AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH !"



"You evil devil women!" Davis said while pointing at Yolei who was sitting on the coach. Yolei had told him that she did it. Kari and Sora hadn't woken up yet and if she didn't take the blame, Davis would have gone after poor TK. TK was watching, quietly laughing at the state of Davis' hair.

"I had to do something. You were getting on my nerves," she said.

"Oh . . . oh. This is on. This is so on. This is so on that it's on!"

"Uh-huh."

"I'll get you so bad. This is war, woman!"

Ken walked in.

"Ken, Davis is harassing me!" Yolie cried.

Ken looked at Davis. "You're whating her?"

"Harassing?! You're the one that sent a squirrel on my head!"

"Something tells me I don't want to know,"Ken said.

"You don't," confirmed TK.

"You're all against me, aren't you!?" Davis cried.

"Um . . . no?"

"That's right! Act all innocent, TK! You're good at that."

"But-"

"Eup! I'm watching you, Blondie!"

"Sure, whatever."

Matt walked into the kitchen. "Why is it so loud?" He looked over at Yolie, Ken, TK and Davis. "Oh, Davis is up . . . what happened to your hair?"



Tai got out of bed by rolling off of it and hitting the floor. He sat up.


Dress.

He picked himself up and stumbled to the dresser. He open the draws and stared at the contents. Thinking his eyes weren't working yet, he closed it again. After a few seconds, he open it.

Nope.

He closed it again. It slowly dawned on him of what must have happened. He ripped open the draw and picked up a pair of pink boxers.

"KARIIIIIIII!"



Kari and Sora shot up from their beds at the same time.

"Uh-oh," Kari said.

"Kari, hide! I don't think he knows I was involve. I'll cover you."

Kari scrambled out of the covers and crawled under her bed. Tai's angry steps could be heard coming closer. He banged loudly on the door. "Kari open up!"

Sora climbed out of bed and combed her fingers through her hair.

"Kari!"

"Hold on, hold on." Sora opened the door. "What do you want?!"

"Where's Kari?!"

"I don't know, probably downstairs . . .Why are you in your underwear?" Sora raised an eyebrow.

Tai froze.

"Damn!" He rushed back to his room to get changed, but stopped when he remembered that all his clothes were pink! He turned back to Sora who was trying not to laugh. "Tell Kari that she's dead," and then he went back to his room.
Sora shut the door. "Kari, I think you should avoid Tai for awhile."



Tai came down stairs, wearing his newly died clothes, more then one pair of eyes on him.

"Wow Tai," Matt said. "Bright much?"

Tai gave him a pleasant poisonous smile. "Whatever do you mean, Matt?"

Davis bursted into the kitchen. "Tai!"

Tai sighed. "Yes, Davis?"

"You're wearing pink!"

"I know that Davis."

"But pink's a girl color!"

Tai bit back his angry retort. He was not going to let whoever did this get the satisfaction of his embarrassment. "Davis . . . you see, since pink is such a girly color, only a man with great confidence in his manliness would ever dare to wear pink. Therefore only real man wear pink."

"Really?"

"Really, Davis."

"Oh Tai!" Mimi, came running down the stairs. "Your shirt is such a pretty color! I think it matches my hair almost exactly!" Mimi began comparing her hair with his shirt.

"On second thought, Matt, you can just kill me."

Izzy came to the kitchen from the bathroom. From the downstairs bathroom, Tai couldn't help notice. "Tai, are you wea–"

"Izzy! Just . . . shut up."

They ate breakfast, Kari coming downstairs last. Tai said nothing to her, but through out the meal, he made sure to glare at her.

"Hey Tai, could you pass the pink– I mean pancakes." Yolei snickered.

Tai almost threw it at her.

"Okay Tai, again, with the orange juice!" Yolie held up the orange juice that Tai had mistakenly given her again. "I don't know what fascination you have with the orange juice, but orange juice is not the same thing as syrup or pancakes! They don't even resemble one another!"

Tai got up. "Okay! I get it! I'm an idiot! Let's all make fun of me! Well, the idiot is leaving!" He stomped upstairs. A moment latter, he was back with a bag and heading for the door.

"Where are you going, Tai?" asked Mimi.

"Away!" and he slammed the door.



As the day went on, Sora began to get more and more worried about Tai. The van was still there. He must have gone off into the woods. Eventually, Sora mustered up the courage to go look for him. She told Matt that she was going on a run, and grabbed a bottle of water before leaving.

She went on the hike that they went on yesterday. It was the only trail she knew of, and assumed it was the only one Tai knew as well. On the way there she even looked for the weird 'footprint' but couldn't remember where it was.

She found Tai, sitting on the edge of the cliff, his bag at a base of a tree right next to him. His bright pink shirt was hard to miss. "Tai?

He turned his head in her direction. To her surprise, he smiled at her . . . an almost suspicious smile.

"Are you all right?"

He pulled his legs up and sat Indian style. "Hunky dory," he replied.

"Listen, about the pink clothes thing . . . it wasn't just Kari. It was me as well. . . . and Yolie, but I'm the one that actually went into your room and stole your clothes, and I'm the one that wanted to get you the most. So . . . I'm sorry. Could you ever forgive me?"

Tai sat there for a second with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Sure, I'm not mad."

"You're not?!"

"Of course not. This," He took something out of his pocket. "This is worth it."

"What is that?!" Sora asked in alarm.

"I don't know," Tai unfolded what looked suspiciously like Sora's panties. "I found them in your room. Weird, isn't it?" Some how, Tai had figured it out already. Apparently he wasn't as stupid as he looked.

Sora's face turned beat red. "You give those back right now!"

Tai got up. Sitting down, his head would be in the perfect spot for Sora to kick. "I don't know, Sora. I think Matt might wanna see 'em."

She screamed at him and tried to make a grab for the panties. Tai pulled them out of her reach. Sora started beating on him, and Tai responded by laughing. He stumbled backwards into the tree, wrapping his arm, behind it. Sora continued to beat on him with one arm and tied to reach for her panties with the other. She pressed her body up against him, trying desperately to reach them, but Tai's arm was longer. Eventually Tai decided he had had his fun, and let Sora snatch the panties away. She smacked him one more time for good measure, before getting off of him.

"You are such an immature, obnoxious, bullheaded jerk!"

"Yes. Yes I am. Of course, dying all my clothes pink was at the height of maturity."

"I told you that I was sorry! What do you want me to do? Beg?"

"I kinda like that idea, but I'm glad that you did it. I'm glad that you're yelling at me right now. I've been thinking."

"Really now? I didn't think you knew how to do that."

"See this proves it. Why everything little thing I do makes you mad. You're not over me. You can't leave me alone."

"What?!" Her voice was about five octaves higher than usual. "What the hell are you talking about?! I never want you back, and I wish we were never together in the first place!"

"Really now?" Tai said sarcastically, giving Sora a flat look.

Sora put a hand to her head, trying to calm herself down. "Okay, I take that back. We had fun together, but it just wasn't meant to be, okay? As hard it is to believe, has it ever occurred to you that maybe I do love Matt?!"

Love. She just said it. Tai felt like he should hack something up. "Fine," he said. "you two go off, make goo-goo eyes at each other. Tell the other that you love 'em. Then you guys'll break up, you'll find yourself a new boyfriend and then you'll go though the same exact thing with Matt as you did with me!"

"Oh, so I'm shallow? Is that what you're saying? Well, for one thing Mister, Matt it a thousand times better than you'll ever be! He's sweet, he's kind, he never harasses me like you do! Maybe one day, we'll even get married."

Tai burst into a bitter laughter. "I'll like to see you tell that one to Matt."

"I hope you will!"

"I hope I will too!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"FINE!"

"FINE!"

"I'm going back to the camp where people like Matt are!"

"Oh, so now Matt's a type of person!"

Sora ignored him and abruptly spun around. The fast motion caused her to slip and a small scream escaped her as she felt herself go over the edge of the cliff.

"Sora!" Tai, desperate to catch her, leapt forward, catching her arm, but the momentum he used sent him starting to tumble over the cliff as well. With his other hand he blindly grabbed for the edge, catching one of the roots of the tree. The grab stopped their fall abruptly and Sora's momentum almost removed Tai's whole arm off. He felt like he was being pulled apart, but he didn't dare let go of anything. Sora was screaming bloody murder now and Tai felt his grip on the root start to loosen.

"Crap. Um Sora, I think we have a problem."

"You think!? Oh my God! We're gonna die!"

"Okay, Sora? You're gonna have to grab onto my waist. I need my other arm . . . like right now. Can you do that?"

"I don't know . . ."

They began to slip further.

"Okay, okay, okay!"

She reached out to Tai. As soon as he felt her touch, he lost his grip. The arm that was holding Sora whipped upward, barely getting a hold on another root. They slid farther down, Sora screaming into Tai's back. They stopped, with Tai holding onto two different roots with each hand, his face pressed against the face of the cliff.

"You still there?" he gasped, though the answer was obvious. Her grip on him was so tight that he could hardly breath.

Sora mumbled something into his back.

"Good." He looked upward. They were far from the top now. He thought that since now he had both his arms, maybe he could just pull them both up. "Okay Sora, just hang in there right now. I think I have a plan." He tried, almost bursting a blood vessel in the process, and failed. He couldn't do it with Sora hanging off of him, and his arms were already tired. They fell back down with a another painful wrench to his arms, and another small scream came from Sora.

"Ah . . . that didn't work."

"Are you sure?" Sora asked sarcastically. "Because I thought for sure we weren't dangling for our lives!"

"Okay, we need a plan."

"Oh, you mean besides dying?"

"You know we wouldn't be in this situation if you were looking where you were going instead of tumbling over a cliff!"

"I wouldn't even be on this stupid cliff, if you hadn't scared me and ran away without telling anyone where you were going!"

"I wouldn't have ran away angry if you hadn't dyed my clothes pink!"

"I wouldn't have died your clothes if you hadn't been such a jerk and starting being nicer to me!"

"I wouldn't have been such a jerk if you hadn't started going out with Matt!"

"Okay . . . this isn't getting us anywhere."

"You're right, we need a plan."

"You already said that. What if we scream for help."

"No one's gonna here us from up here."

"Oh yeah. Silly me. We should do the much better plan of falling to our death instead."

Tai reached for the edge, but couldn't reach it. "Sora . . . Do you think you could climb on top of my shoulders and reach for the cliff edge?"

"Are you crazy?! That's will totally kill us! And what will you do if I even made it?"

"I was hoping you could pull me up, but you could always let me fall. It's you decision," Tai said wryly.

"I don't think I'd be able to pull you up."

"Yeah, we should just stick with the falling to our death plan."

"Okay, I'll try. But I'm afraid I'll hurt you."

"Don't worry, just go."

Sora loosened one of her arms and reached for Tai's shoulder. His muscle was strained from holding them up, and she was hesitant to put even an ounce of her extra weight on him.

"Sora . . ."

She grabbed onto his shoulder, then with her other hand grabbed the other shoulder, using her legs to help shimmy her way up. Tai cried out in pain, and she tried to go faster, but pulling her knees onto his shoulders was a lot harder than it sounded. She almost fell, but grabbed onto Tai's head.

"Sora hurry up!"

She reached for the ledge. She could just touch it.

Snap!

She grabbed onto the edge, as Tai fell from her knees. "TAI!" she screamed.

"I'm alright!"

She looked down and saw Tai, still hanging by one arm. Only one of the roots had snapped. Looking down, made her realize how far up they were and she froze in panic.

"Sora! Move!"

She snapped out of it and slowly pulled herself up. She turned around and laid on her stomach, offering Tai her hand.

He reached for it, their fingers touching before his strength left him and he fell back down. They tied again with the same outcome. Each time Tai's fingers left hers she thought for sure he was falling.

Tai was getting more and more tired. He thought his arms would fall off before the root really broke. He tried once more.

Sora grabbed onto Tai's hand.

His weight pulled her down, and she dug her toes into the ground. She couldn't pull him up with only one arm, so she took hold of him with two.

"Okay, I have you. Try to help me pull you up."

Tai slowly started to put his wait into Sora's hands instead of the root . . .

. . . until he saw her starting to slip forward.

He quickly returned his weight to the root. "Sora, you're slipping."

She wiggled back. "It's okay. I can pull you up. On three, okay?"

"Wait, Sora–"

"One, two,"

"Sora, you're gonna fall!"

"Three!"

Afraid if he didn't, Sora would just pull herself over the edge, he shifted his weight. He was lifted a little higher, but Sora slipped over the edge a little farther.

"Sora, if you don't stop, then you'll fall, dragging me with you and we'll both die!"

Sora's face was red from the strain. "I can do it."

"Just let me go."

"No! I'm not letting you go."

"Sora!" Tai's voice, that had started out ironically calm in the beginning was now panicked. Any second now, Sora was going to fall over the edge, head first.

With a desperate scream, using the last of her strength, she yanked Tai up. As soon ad his arms were above the edge, she grabbed onto his bright pink shirt and pulled him up over the edge.

She dragged Tai away from the edge. When they were a good distance away, she flung her arms around him and sobbed into his chest. They stayed like that until both of their hearts started to ease. For awhile, all Sora was aware of was a Tai's chest rising and falling.

She pulled away. They had made it. All of a sudden she felt giddy and started to giggle.

"Um . . . Sora? Are you alright?"

She burst into laughter and flung her arms around Tai again, who then also started to laugh. Tai wrapped his arms around her and she sighed with contentment.

Then her stomach did a flip-flop.

Wait.

She pulled away, her face beginning to burn. "Tai . . ."

He looked at her with sad eyes.

"Tai, I'm sorry, but . . . I . . . Matt . . ."

"Sora . . ."

"No Tai! No! Why is it all of a sudden now that you're . . . that you're . . ."

"I'm . . .?"

"If you had only listened, if you only cared, I wouldn't have broken up with you! But instead, you'd just raise your voice, or slam the door or . . ."

"Sora?"

"You're so stubborn, if you stopped to listen, just once!"

"Can I say something?"

"And besides. Me and Matt love each other. So just get over it!"

He kissed her.

He did it passionately, trying to put everything he meant in that single moment.

Sora did nothing. She just stood there.

He eventually pulled away. "I get it. I just wanted to do that one more time," Tai said with a smile. "You can continue yelling at me now."

She opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything.

"Okay then. I'm going back." He started walking in the direction of the camp. "Oh and Sora," he said over his shoulder. "Remember I kissed you. If Matt's gonna kill anyone, it should be me. You're still clean." Then he left.

Sora continued to stand there. Tears welling up in her eyes. She hated herself.



A bunch of cards flew through the air.

"TK, you're suppose to bend all the cards and don't let go of them or they go all over the place."

"Wait, do it again."

Matt shuffled a deck of cards, bending them like a bridge.

"I can't tell what you're doing. You're going too fast."

"Well, it's not like I can do it slowly. Then they'd go all over the place like yours."

The door slammed open and Tai stumbled in. Matt and TK looked up at Tail, who was tired, and cover in dirt.

"What happen to you?" asked Matt.

"I'm taking a shower," was all he said. He started to head for the stairs, changed his mind and went to the downstairs hall instead. "Oh, congratulation Matt. Apparently you're getting married."

"What?!" Tai went into the shower.

Matt stood up. What? Where was Sora anyway. She'd been gone for a long time. He looked out the window. He thought he saw a bit of movement. He rushed out the door.

Sora was standing outside, covered in dirt, head down, covering her hands with her face.

"Sora, what happened?!"

He put his arms around her and she bursted into tears.

She didn't deserve Matt. She didn't deserve Tai. What kind of person was she? How could she not be sure who she loved?

She pulled away from Matt. "I need to be alone," she told him.

Stupid Tai.

She should just blame everything on Tai. He just made her confused. Everything will look better later. She went to her room and decided to take a nap.



Tai sat on the shower floor, clothes still on, cold water beating on his head. He ached all over. His arms still hurt, and his face was hot. He knew he was upset, so he tried to cool himself down with cold water. He heaved a shuddering breath.

Now what?

Nothing. It was over.

It should have been over since Sora had screamed at him that day, and said she never wanted to see him again, but he thought, she didn't mean it. She's come back.

It should have been over when he heard that Sora was dating Matt, but he thought that would never last.

It should be over now. Then why did he keep thinking that he could get her back?

Because he was an immature, obnoxious, bullheaded jerk.

He smiled to himself. He tried to move his legs, but even that hurt. He was going to be so stiff we he finally got up.

I do love Matt?!

Did she mean that too? Tai could never understand Sora. She would say things were fine, when things were not fine, and then when she finally says there's a problem, Tai would still be thinking she was in reverse psychology mode and think she was kidding.

Stupid Sora, and her stupid complicatedness.

He wished things were back to how they used to be, when everything he said could make her laugh. Then he'd think himself super clever.

He missed their stupid arguments, that he would make last longer, not because he thought he was right (he was usually wrong) but because he liked to hear Sora's retort. She'd go and on about why she was right, and why he was wrong, but he didn't care. He just like to listen to her voice.

God, he even missed the embarrassing times when his mom popped in and asked Sora if he was being a gentlemen or not!

Life was so great back then. How did he mess it up so bad? How did it get like this?



Sora chucked a tennis ball at the wall. She thought of taking a nap, but she couldn't sit still. The force of the ball was enough for it to bounce off the wall, hit the back wall, then hit the front wall before she caught it again.

Bump, bump, bump!

It felt good, so she did it again.

Bump, bump, bump!

It made a lot of noise, but she didn't care. She decided she didn't care about a lot of things. Like Tai kissing her. She let Tai kiss her. She didn't care what Tai said. It was her fault too. She was a horrible person, letting some other guy kiss her when she already had a boyfriend.

Bump, bump, bump!

But she didn't care about that either. So what if she was a horrible person!? She didn't care. Did it look like she cared?!

Bump, bump, bump!

Ha! Tai thought she still had feelings for him. Ha! Ha! That's why she was picking on him. What an idiot he was. Yes, she had a feeling for him. Hate! The internal burning hatred for that horrible idiot!

But since they were both horrible people, they'd both go to Hell and she would never escape him!

Bump, bump, bump!

At least Matt would escape. He'd go to Heaven.

"Dammit!"

Bump, bump, bump!

She started throwing the ball at hyper speed.

Bump, bump, bump!

Bump, bump, bump!

Bump, bump, bump!

Bump, bump, bump!

Suddenly the door opened. Kari ducked and the ball sailed over her head, into Tai and Izzy's room. There was a loud crash and Kari winced.

That's right ball, go into Tai's room. Break his stuff! Thought Sora, though the thing that crashed was more likely Izzy's than Tai's.

Kari closed the door. "We'll pretend that never happened," she said.

Sora stood there with a somewhat insain looking smile.

"Sora . . . are you alright?"

"I'M FINE!" she screamed.

"Sorry," Kari said quickly.

"I mean . . . yes Kari, I'm fine."

"Um . . . okay. I'm gonna lay down for a moment though." Kari went over to her bed. Now that Sora was looking at her more closely, she could see that Kari was looking very pale.

"Are you alright?"

"I feel like I'm going to throw up," Kari groaned

"Do you want me to get Joe? He probably has something."

"Yeah, sure."

Sora left and went down stairs, just as Tai was coming down the hall. Matt and TK were still sitting at the table.

"Matt, Sora," Tai said in acknowledgment.

"Tai, Matt," answered Sora.

"Sora and Tai!" Matt said notably more brighter.

"Um . . ." said TK. "Am I invisible?"

"I don't know TK, but I'm confused," said Matt.

"And I thought you were Matt and I was TK, but apparently we are Confused and Invisible."

"Tai," Sora said ignoring them. "Why are you all wet?"

Tai looked at her for a moment. "I took a shower."

No one said anything for an awkward silence. Then Tai tried to push pass Sora to get upstairs.

"Oh, Tai? Kari isn't feeling well. Do you know where Joe is?"

"He's outside," said Matt.

"Thank you, Matt." Sora said with a smile, and pushed pass Tai.



"Kari! Speak to me!"

"You're awfully loud, Davis."

"She lives!" he cried.

"Davis, loud." Kari put her hands over her eyes.

"Are you going to be alright Kari?"

"Yeah, I think I'll skip dinner though."

"Don't worry, Kari. I'll eat twice as much for you."

TK gave Davis a flat look. "Davis, . . . never mind."

"Thank you guys for checking up on me." Kari smiled up at Davis and TK. "I'm going to take a nap right now, okay?"

"Sure. Come on Davis. We should get to dinner." They left.

Kari stared at the ceiling. Once she got to sleep, she'd feel better when she got up, right?

But she was afraid to close her eyes. She didn't want to hear their voices anymore.