We're Here (Maia)

"Bye, Maia's friends!" Elliot called as he waved to the hastily-retreating girls. "Have a nice day!" Between the sudden change in tone on Kyoko's part and the other girl's more dramatic tendencies, they weren't exactly subtle in their exit. Elliot hoped that, with that cheerful greeting, he would be able to leave a good first impression on some other students. It was such a big school! It was never too early to start.

Isaac wasn't sure if he was happy or not about this turn of events. On one hand, it was Maia. Would a day ever pass where he wasn't happy to see her? On the other hand, he had been hoping to get through today subtly and without anybody really noticing him. He just wanted to check out the school, learn how to navigate, go home, and brush up on his Japanese some more. That would be the ultimate plan to avoid looking like a total idiot on his first day. Now he was spotted by the person whose opinion meant most to him. At least he could trust Maia not to laugh at him too much as he started adapting to everything. "Hey, Mai. Fancy seeing you here," Isaac said, smiling casually as he offered up a hug.

"We're gonna be your classmates now! Isn't that so cool?" Elliot asked, pouncing on the question before Isaac even had a chance to answer.

Still, the boy wanted to provide further clarification, hushing his voice slightly as he talked to Maia to avoid Elliot overhearing and getting upset. "You know how I texted you that we might be here a bit longer? Yeah, turns out by "a bit" Mom meant "we're moving here now." Elliot's been taking it really hard, so I promised I'd show him the school to try and help show him it's not gonna be all bad. Besides, if I'm going to be here too, I should at least know what I'm doing." Judging by the overall hesitant tone in Isaac's voice, it was abundantly clear that he did not. He grinned warmly at Maia, hoping his genuine happiness at getting to see her again would help keep his fears and worries a bit more buried. "Still, bright side. Looks like we ended up getting that more time with each other after all."

Personal talk aside, Isaac raised his voice back to normal volume to let Elliot back into the conversation. "So how do you like it here? I gotta admit, I've never really seen a school like this before, so it's looking like a lot to take in." If there was anyone he was comfortable opening up about his weaknesses to, it was Maia. Maybe this wouldn't turn out to be so bad after all.

Maia wasn't as overjoyed with the news as Isaac had hoped, but he understood perfectly. It had to have been a long, tiring day of school, and then this knowledge was just dropped on her right out of the blue. He could understand if having this suddenly come up would be more surprising than celebratory. He had wanted to pick a more appropriate time to tell her the good news, but it seemed that the universe delighted in rushing him. "Yeah, I was going to tell you next time you were free to meet up. Figured it was too big a deal to just drop over text. Looks like we ended up having that meetup earlier than expected," he remarked, hoping to clarify what his original intentions were with not texting Maia the second the news broke. Some things were just way too important to do so in such an impersonal fashion. Maybe once the confusion passed away, then the duo could get to celebrating.

"Yeah, but that's okay. I've always been the younger one," Elliot said matter-of-factly. "I'm sure there'll be lots of people I can meet. I think I'll be second year of Junior High? Oooh, this'll be so exciting!" Elliot looked really eager. The boy loved school. It was a good social outlet, a fun place to meet people, and there was so much learning to be done. It would be a nice tethering element towards normalcy. Maybe if he squeezed his eyes shut, and tried to rapidly translate Japanese to English in his head, it would be like he was back home in California. Not like he would be learning significantly different stuff anyway. Math was still math. Science was still science. History and language would be cool, new opportunities instead of the Civil War for the fifth year in a row. For once, something about this move seemed worth it!

Isaac had a feeling that was the case. It didn't help that Elliot's grip on the language was tightening due to late night practice, a pliable young mind, and a very strong work ethic. In comparison, Isaac was busy tracking monsters and making sure old nightmares wouldn't come crawling out of the Dark Area. One of these was far more conducive to learning Japanese than the other, and while Isaac was okay at hearing it he was still quite far off from full comprehension. "Not surprised. I've been trying to brush up lately, but it's probably going to take me a bit to adapt," he said, speaking somewhat hesitant Japanese. He had a better grasp on word choice and more confidence in his speech, but it was clear he still had a long way to go. "Maybe we could trade? While I model for you, we practice talking?"

"Isaac's gonna be a first year high schooler. So I bet you'll be bumping into each other a lot. I'll miss you guys," Elliot added. He doubted the grwde levels had much crossover with each other, even if all on one campus. Being so far away from his brother would be a big shock after they spent this vacation practically attached at the hip. Would he be able to handle being on his own?

Isaac found himself smiling, even in the face of all of his nerves and anxieties, as Maia made her offers. How could he not, when she was offering books and trying to help the two of them make friends? He couldn't even describe how grateful he was for all of her suggestions and efforts, despite the fact that he and Elliot were funny-talking strangers of a younger age. Briefly, Isaac found himself worrying about what they would do to Maia's social status. Kids could be really cruel sometimes, and being so close to a pair of junior high or almost high school kids would likely stick out like a sore thumb to them. Oh well, Maia didn't seem too worried about it. And Isaac could just fight anybody who gavd her flak over it anyway. "I ever tell you you're the nicest person in the world?" Isaac asked in response to all of the offers, the smile on his face unshakable.

Oh. Right. Japanese was something you had to write too. The boys had primarily handled the language through audio so far, with a secondary focus on writing. That was all well and good for when they were tourists, who could learn to find their way around through Google and mangled requests for directions. And when would tourists ever need to write anything? Now that they were here to stay, all the speaking practice in the world would pale in priority to getting their handle on literacy. Isaac blushed in embarrassment as he realized he was somewhat far behind on that note, while Elliot started trying to put two and two together between the characters he knew how to read and how to properly put them down on paper. "We've still got a long way to go, but I'm a quick learner and Isaac's really clever," Elliot said, covering for some of their inadequacies with a silver lining.

The girl's tone was pensive, as if she was worried about Isaac being embarrassed by her offer. As if he'd ever be embarrassed to be around Maia! If anyone had a problem with her they just weren't worth keeping around, end of story. He was more worried about her embarrassment than anything, but when she was the one presenting the offer Isaac figured she was comfortable enough with it to be a non-issue. "You know I'd love to," he said, smiling reassuringly at her. It was kind of weird that he was the one trying to be reassuring when his nerves were tingling and his heart was beating at a mile a minute, but Isaac wouldn't be Isaac if he didn't spend his time constantly rising to the task of trying to help people he loved. Just don't call him a hero for it.

Elliot was starting to look a little jittery. As much as he loved small talk and seeing Maia, he was really hoping that their tour of the school could start soon. Thankfully, he had other questions to focus on so he wouldn't sound like he was rudely rushing the two. Amidst all of this relief was a bit of curiosity, as Elliot realized that their usual group of four was currently down to three. "What does Kuu usually do at school?"

Elliot let out a small squeak of surprise as he tried to catch onto Kuu's cartridge. On one hand, he was glad to see his Digital pal. On the other hand, Maia threw the cartridge to the brother with only one free hand to catch things with? Elliot had to duck a little to try and grab onto the cartridge, fumbling slightly to make sure poor Kuu didn't go clattering to the floor. Thankfully, the fox popped out of the tube instead of hitting the floor, so Elliot's poor catching skills didn't come back to haunt him too badly. He couldn't help but laugh a little as the fox scrambled up him. It always tickled a little being climbed on by the excitable Digimon. "Good to see you again, Kuu!" the boy said, grinning. "You didn't give Maia too much trouble at school today, did you?" Of course he did! He was eating lead. Thankfully he was a Digimon and didn't have real organs, or he'd be poisoned badly.

"Makes sense. Wish I could leave our forms behind, but they're kinda stuck with us. Always that little bit of stress in the back of our mind," Isaac remarked. "But you never know when we'll end up needing them, so it might be for the best we've got them with us all the time." Isaac had a point. Digimon bio-emerging in the real world could be really dangerous, and if they were caught off guard they'd be downright helpless. At least Kuu could run over from home if something bad was happening with Maia. Without their Digivices, Elliot and Isaac were completely useless.

"So, which classes are you taking? Learn anything neat today?" Isaac asked. Sometimes, high schools offered a few electives that students could dive into, especially for later-year students like Maia. Even if this one didn't, at the very least Maia would get to learn stuff more interesting than the same basic lessons that elementary and high school had given the brothers so far. Isaac swore, if he heard about George Washington crossing the Delaware one more time he was going to snap. He also had to wonder what the Japanese language classes were like. Would there be offerings for foreigners and immigrants that would start on a gentler level? Or would it just be the usual writing and literature classes that they had learned to take in English?

Speaking of English, at least they'd have the best grades there by far!

Maia's little question, most likely rhetorical, still gave the boys quite a bit of pause. If they could trade these forms away for an actual Digimon, would they? There would be no more burden or pressure on them to rise to the occasion, for starters. They would be able to remain safe from harm while their partners would be able to fight. That would also mean they individually had less power to protect others with, though. The current sense of culpability that the duo felt would be left unclear. Would they feel less responsible when something went wrong because it wasn't their fault, or more responsible because they wouldn't be able to do anything? That didn't even begin to describe the challenges of actually raising a partner. Would they share one, or would there suddenly be two Digimon running around the house?

"I mean, it probably gets really lonely like this," Elliot said, voice slightly downcast. "I'm lucky enough to have Isaac, but if I didn't? I can't imagine going to the Digital World bu myself all the time."

Isaac nodded, trying to think of a counterpoint so that Maia didn't think that their lives were entirely cruddy. That'd be bad! "We're at risk a lot because we're always right in the middle of a fight, but we're also able to be a lot more direct with protecting the people we care about. It's pretty nice getting to make a difference like that, at least," he decided upon. Being a tamer would've probably been maddening to him. He felt powerless enough in day to day life. Being equally powerless in a fantasy realm on top of that would've stung bad.

The topic shifted from Digimon to history next. Elliot's eyes lit up at the knowledge being shared, while Isaac seemed far more concerned with the girl's condition. She seemed heavily distracted, and Isaac was starting to realize just how much living in two worlds took a toll on a person. Sure, she never stated that to be a reason behind her being so behind, but what else would demand so much attention that Maia was still reading yesterday's notes? Maybe a bad illness or something, but Isaac sure as heck hoped that if something bad like that happened Maia would end up texting him. "Lot on your plate lately, huh?" Isaac asked, an unstated "any way I can help?" floating at the end of the sentence.

"A test? Aww, I wish I could help you out." Elliot shot Kuu a brief look of "why" before turning back to Maia, worry shining in his eyes. "I'm really good with books, but I don't think I'm good enough to help someone four grades above me." It always sucked seeing a friend in need just outside of his reach, but Elliot knew that for once this was a situation he had no business partaking in. Cooking and cleaning with Alicia was one thing, but trying to understand high school subjects was far too above his weightclass. As painful as it would be, Elliot would just have to step back and let life take it's course. "You'll do great, though!"

The boy's enthusiasm returned in full force as Maia mentioned that they were planning on touring the school. He looked up at Isaac with bright eyes that practically screamed "Are we going yet?" A small grin escaped Isaac as he turned away from his excitable brother and back towards Maia. "Not at all! Could use the company, after all," Isaac said confidently. "Besides, I've been meaning to catch up with you about future plans. Now that I'm here for good, I need to start actually doing some planning about my life. Especially trying to balance everything with you-know-where.

Oh! You know this place way better than us. You got any suggestions of where to go first?" He felt a little bad asking something so strenuous of Maia after a long day, but he figured giving her control of the group's direction would be preferable compared to them wandering in circles and frustrating the poor girl. They may have been capable of navigating the streets of Shibuya, but they were also much more accustomed to those and trained in the art of the mnemonic. School would be completely new to them, and with newness would come distraction and confusion. Who knows? They might just accidentally stumble upon kindergarten class in session or something!