"Shaun! Get out of bed!"
Shaun looked at his ceiling, knowing that he had to get up but not wanting to. He could hear his sister in her room, listening to a CD as she packed her backpack.
"Shaun!" his mother called again.
With a sigh, he slid out of bed and threw on some clean clothes before stomping down the stairs with his backpack on. At the bottom, the family's dog licked his hand and bounded away to play with her rope-toy.
Shaun reached the kitchen and helped himself to some cereal for breakfast. Summer had to be over this soon. He almost couldn't believe that he was already going back to school.
Finished, he tossed his bowl in the sink and placed his blue goggles around his forehead with a flourish.
"Shaun! I'm leaving!" called his sister Meghan from the front door.
"I'm comin'!" He hurried to the door and followed her out.
"Meghan! Shaun!"
The two siblings turned back to see their friend, Steven, dashing up towards them.
"At least we're in the same class this year, Shaun," he panted as he launched straight into conversation, "but do you know who our teacher is?"
"Mr. Dejeka or something like that. I've never met him." Meghan ran up to someone's front porch and knocked a couple of times while they talked. A blonde girl answered the door, throwing her backpack over her shoulders.
"Keri, are we still on for tonight?"
The girl grinned, "You bet! Dad ordered pizza and ev'rything!"
Shutting the door behind her, Keri walked down to the sidewalk with Meghan to where the two boys waited.
"Let's go already!" snorted Shaun.
He grinned as Steven set out briskfully and began talking about how bad his visiting grandpa was at his new virtual game.
"He can't even get past the little guys at the beginning- he says that they look like something that comes from a story that his parents would tell him. Y'know, one of those that started a long time ago and he's trying to tell it to me now. It's something about kids that whoop all these bad guys from a different dimension that want to take over the world. I don't think it's likely that there ever really were super kids anywhere around here before."
Shaun grinned. "I've heard that one! My grandparents used to tell it to me when I was little. Except for that it had monsters in it that helped the kids to win. Are there any new video games coming out soon? I need a new one cuz I've beaten all the ones I have."
"Um… There's Star Raiders, but I heard that the graphics are bad."
When they got to school, the boys headed down the hall to their classroom. All the kids from last year's class including (to their dismay) Shaun's "rival" since he could remember. Blake always tried to out do him, and succeeded most of the time. The thing that really ticked off Shaun was that Blake got away with a lot of rude things in class. The teacher never had been paying attention. And, speaking of the teacher…
Mr. Dejeka came through the door in a blue suit and a white briefcase. He was tall with black hair pulled back into a very small ponytail in the back and pale green eyes. The bell rang as he sat behind his desk and put the briefcase under it.
"Okay, class, you can sit anywhere you'd like for now."
Steven and Shaun sat away from Blake.
"I'm Mr. Dejeka, but for the purposes of this class, let's all be on a first name basis. Please, just call me Keeper."
The class looked confused and a few of them exchanged looks.
"Now that that's settled, if you guys could pull out some notebook paper, we'll get started on your first assignment."
The usual shuffle for paper and pencils followed as the class went through their bags.
"I'd like you all to write and/or draw scenes from your favorite story so that I can get a better look into your interests…"
***************
After lunch, the class headed outside for recess. One of the girls, Anna, had brought her soccer ball from home.
"Owner's rules- same deal as last year, you guys!" she called out.
Shaun and Blake, the team captains from last year, walked out to the field and began choosing players. Blake went first.
"Derek!"
"Steven!"
"Cody!"
"Maurine!"
"Aqua!"
The teams continued to grow until Shaun had chosen the last of the students. The teams each had fourteen players, so six were placed on one side of the field, six on the other, a goalie in the goalie box, and the captains could wander on both sides freely.
"Mr. Dejeka?" Anna spoke up.
"Keeper."
"Oh, Keeper. Can you referee the ball for us please?"
"Sure thing." Keeper took off his coat and tie, then walked to the center of the field where the two captains waited for the face-off. Keeper took the ball from Blake and held it to the ground.
"On your mark, get set… GO!" He pulled his hand away in time to avoid Shaun's kick that sent the ball to his team members. They dodged around the other players until Maurine got a clear shot and passed it to Shaun. He headed for the goal, but couldn't avoid the player that skidded in front of him and kicked away the ball to another. Shaun tripped over the knee in front of him, but somersaulted to his feet.
Racing over to the aide of his goalie, he saw Nathan kick the ball into the air where Steven caught it with his knee and head-butted it into the goal behind the goalie.
Twenty minutes later, Shaun's team had won with 5-3. Keeper put his coat and tie back on and lead the class indoors. As the excited students sat in their desks, Keeper began writing math problems on the board for math races.
***************
Once the last few hours of class were over, the last bell rang and they packed up their things. Shaun put his open backpack on his desk as he bent to tie his shoe. Blake gave it a swift shove as he passed, laughing on his way out the door.
Shaun sighed as he put his things back in with the help of Steven and stood up.
Keeper watched the duo from his desk, and then looked over at his computer. Pictures of the two boys appeared, then across the bottom flashed: "That's right! When do we meet them?"
The window minimized to show a forest in front of a few large mountains.
"Now is good," Keeper said aloud.
The two boys looked at him curiously. "Beg your pardon?"
He smiled at them warmly. "Someone's been waiting to meet you two fro quite some time now. Are you ready?"
"Umm…" The two friends took a step back.
"Don't be afraid; they're your friends. Come over here." Keeper turned to face his computer.
They walked up, confused.
"Will both of you put your hands on the screen?"
"This isn't a joke, is it?"
"No, no jokes here."
The boys put their hands up to the screen and touched it. To their complete astonishment, they slipped right through and saw only the picture on the screen where their hand ought to be. Something then locked around their wrists and they pulled away quickly. Now there was a watch there as if it had just grown on- golden for Steven and dark blue for Shaun.
Shaun studied it for a moment before it started to glow. Light burst like a spot light towards his feet where a little blue creature formed out of it. An orange diamond clashed with its coloring, its wing-like ears twitched, and its golden eyes opened to look up at Shaun.
Glancing over at Steven, the boy could tell that he was having a similar experience except for the fact that he had a golden one with blue eyes, a red spot on his back, and a mane of fire instead of ears.
"Shaun!" came a scruffy voice from his feet. He looked back at the blue one, surprised that it could talk. It jumped up and he caught it at chest level. "My name's Quiremon! I'm so glad that I could find you!" Quiremon happily nuzzled him under the chin. "I just know that we're gonna be best buds- wait and see!"
Felling far away, Shaun thought back to the story. His grandparents' voices rang softly in his ears, "I've been waiting such a long time to meet you, Tai! We're gonna have the best of times!" Koromon bounced around the young boy energetically until it leapt into his arms. "I'm a Digimon, and I'll always be your friend!"
"Are you a Digimon?" he asked it softly.
Quiremon squirmed excitedly. "I sure am! You're so smart that you already know what I am!"
Keeper shut down his computer and got up to leave with his briefcase.
Steven paled. "My mom would never let me keep a Digimon, much less get it at school! You'll have to take Crisnismon back!"
Chuckling, Keeper replied, "Then she doesn't have to know. But I do advise that you show him to your grandfather with out your mother knowing. He might seem a lot cooler to hang out with then." With that, Keeper was out the door and gone.
"Now what?" Steven moaned, "How will we get you past Meghan and Keri?"
Quiremon leapt back down. "We'll just hide in you guy's back packs! They'd never see us there!"
"Wouldn't you get squished?" inquired Shaun.
"Maybe, but we Digimon have got to keep a low profile in this world."
Steven took his backpack off to help Crisnismon inside while Shaun zipped his up almost all the way to leave breathing room for Quiremon. He placed it carefully on his back.
"Are you sure that you're okay?" he asked again.
"I'm perfectly fine!" came the muffled reply.
Steven checked on Crisnismon, and then the two headed out of the school to where Meghan and Keri sat on the steps impatiently.
"Took you long enough!" Meghan sighed.
"Hey, Steven, did Meghan tell you that she's sleeping over tonight?"
Steven shook his head, only half listening as Keri launched into description of what they would do. As they walked home, they both wondered what to d with the Digimon they had with them.
Meghan went straight to Keri's house then, and Shaun hurried home with Steven. Opening the front door, he raced inside and grabbed a bag of cookies.
"Hey, Mom! Can I do my homework at Steven's?"
"Sure. Just be back before six, all right?"
"Okay!" He hurried back out to where Steven had Crisnismon loose.
"My mom shouldn't be home until five thirty, so we can let them out."
Quiremon let himself out onto the ground before the four took off to Steven's house down the street. Shaun liked the way that Quiremon's white claws hit the cement with a clang, and Crisnismon's black ones echoed them softly. As they opened the door and went inside, Steven's grandpa walked into the front room.
"My, my. It's been so long since I've seen a Digimon. It's hard to believe that they would return someday like Gennai said…"
To Be Continued...