High School Never Ends

Chapter 24: Where's Kari?

Kari opened her eyes and looked at the clock. It was 10 am. She wondered if her parents and Tai were looking for her. She groaned getting out of bed. She knew Jill would be at school so she went downstairs and grabbed some food out of the fridge in her friends empty house.

She went over to the living room and sat on her friends couch turning on the TV. She tried to concentrate on the TV program but there was only one thing on her mind. Tk.

...

"Ugh!" Tai groaned kicking the car door at another failure to find Kari. They had been traveling all night in search of the girl and he was exahusted and frusturated.

"Tai you need some rest, you've been up all night." Sora said worried about him.

"Why don't we go get something to eat and resume looking after." Matt suggested holding his stomach hugery.

Tai sighed. "Yeah okay." They trio got back in the car and drove to a local cafe taking a break from their search.

Sora sat down next to Tai and Matt sat across in a booth where they ordered. Tai covered his face in his hands feeling defeated by this whole ordeal.

"I'll have a buger with extra fries, a large coke, and a huge slice of that chocolate cake over there." Matt said happily.

Tai looked up. "I hope you know you're paying for that."

"Yeah yeah." Matt said rubbing his hands together happy to be getting some food.

"So where to next?" Sora asked looking at Tai.

Tai shrugged. "I honestly have no idea. She could be anywhere."

"Maybe we should head closer to where we live. I mean she's what 14? 15? she can't have that much money." Matt suggested taking his burger happily.

"Maybe..." Tai said. "Yeah I guess you're right."

"We're going to find her Tai." Sora said confidently holding his hand underneath the table.

He smiled at her feeling happy that she had come with him.

"Uh still here..." Matt said looking at the two staring at each other.

"Oh right." Sora said letting go and starting to eat.

...

"What's this?" Izzy asked.

"Ahhh my special recipe." Mimi said smirking. "Just try it."

Izzy looked up at her. "You cook?"

"Of course, I'm going to be a perfessional chef one day. I'm going to open up my own resturaunt." Mimi told him happily.

He smiled and took a bite into the food. "Oh my god Mimi this is amazing!" he started stuffing his face.

She laughed. "You mean it?"

"Yeah!" he said in mid chew.

"Thanks! Anyway um well before the dance could you come to my house for pictures? My parents want to meet you..." she said slightly embaressed. "They just want to make sure you're not some druggy I guess..."

"That's fine." he told her. "I'll be happy to meet them."

"Just one thing, their a bit...off. I've never actually introduced any boyfriends to them before but they heard me talking about you and were like 'Oh you seem to really like this boy we have to meet him' and all that..." she said turning red.

"They can't be that humiliating, Mimi."

"You say this now..."

...

"You ditched school." Davis said walking into Tk's living room.

Tk looked up from the computer. "Congradulations for noticing."

"Dude what have you been doing all day?"

"Searching for Kari!" Tk said frusturated. "Ugh that girl is impossible to find! I searched every place I could possibly walk to and since I don't have a car it's not like I can go far. Now I'm looking on all those social sites to see if she left any comments or clues to where she is."

"No luck?"

"No" he sighed. "I just need her to know."

"Know?"

"That I would never go out of my way to hurt her. That I do care." he told him defeated.

"She'll come back. In the meantime you have another problem."

"I do?"

"Erin..."

"Oh her, yeah I'll just text her and tell her our date is off."

"She's going to want to know why."

"Well she isn't going to get that much." Tk said taking out his phone and dialing. "Okay all done."

"Somehow I don't think it's going to be that easy."

"Somehow I really don't give a damn what she wants." Tk told him. "Hey...I have an idea."

"What? Where we going?" Davis asked seeing Tk get his coat.

"To the mall, when Kari does come back I'll be ready."

...

"What's that?" Jill asked walking into the guest room where Kari was staring at a dress.

"The dress I was going to wear to that formal dance this Friday. I thought Tk would ask me...I brought it so we could burn it..."

"Kari..." Jill started but her friend interupted.

"Why is life falling so down hill for me?" she started to cry. "Why did I have to move, fall for a boy who was a jerk, and get bullied?"

Jill came over and hugged her. "I'm so sorry Kari but I know things will turn around for you! You're a good person!"

Kari looked at the dress. "Not good enough..."

...

"Tai..." Sora said looking at the boy who was sleeping in the back of the car.

"He's out." Matt said driving the car.

"How can you tell? His hairs covering his eyes." Sora commented turning to face the road.

Matt smirked. "You always make fun of the ones you truly care about."

Sora gave him a look. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He shrugged. "Just seems like you're trying so hard not to like him and you're doing a really bad job."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sora said with her arms crossed.

"Yeah okay."