"Hey, Joe!"

Joe looked up quickly from the piece of paper he was holding. "Huh? What?"

Tai, Kari, and Matt walked over to Joe’s table. "Uh, Joe what are you doing?"

"Just sitting here," Joe said quickly. "Hey, where’s T.K?"

"He’s at summer camp," Matt said. "I could’ve gone too, but I’m trying to spend more time with my mom and dad. As in my mom and dad. Y’know?"

"Well, I guess I’ll see him," Joe said. "I’m a counselor. Summer job, you know?"

"Right," Tai said impatiently. "What’s that piece of paper?"

Joe thought fast. "Um…it’s homework?"

Tai looked at him like he was crazy. "Homework, huh? In the middle of July…huh. When was that assigned, Joe?"

"Well, not homework from school," Joe babbled. "It’s from…um…summer school! Yeah, it’s from summer school. Got to lift up my grades, right?"

Matt shook his head. "Summer school? No way, man. Why would you go to summer school? You’re grades are almost as good as Izzy’s!"

"It’s not from summer school," Kari said, who had picked up the paper when Joe dropped it nervously. "Its a—" suddenly Kari stopped and folded the paper. Then she put it in her pocket. She didn’t say a word.

"Well?" Tai said hurriedly. "Kari? What is it?"

Joe looked at Kari helplessly. Then Kari stood on her tiptoes and whispered something to Tai.

"Tai?" Matt said. "What is it?"

Tai turned around. "Joe needs to get to camp, right, Joe?"

"Right," Joe said, relieved.

"I’m hungry," Kari said. "Let’s get some food.

"Right, after the arcade," Tai promised. I owe Matt tokens there. And little Matt loves arcades, right, Mattie Mattie?"

"Shut up, Tai," Matt said irritably. "Look, if you didn’t owe me so much, I wouldn’t mind."

But when they reached the arcade, they found a digimon trashing the place. "What is that?" Tai exclaimed.

"Now don’t you say you don’t remember me," the digimon said. "I’m hurt, I’ll really am, uhhuhhuh, uhhuhhuh."

MetalEtemon leaped to the top of the arcade game he had knocked down. "It’s the end of the line, Bubba. No more runnin’ away."

"You didn’t think I’d come back and beat you, did you? Ah, I’m so evil. You thought you were hot stuff, didn’t you? Uhhuhhuh!"

"Agumon, please digivolve," Tai pleaded with his digimon. "Please!"

"I cant, Tai! I can’t digivolve, I think it has to do with MetalEtemon!"

"That’s right. And there’s more where that came from. You’re not on the top ten, anymore, kid! You want to mess with me, you gotta take a little Dark Network Concert Crash!"

The digimon all fell in pain. Except Gatomon. She glared at MetalEtemon. "You may be able to beat them, but not me."

"Right!" Kari said, running to Gatomon’s side. "We can win together."

"Well, what’s this? A new kitty in town? Well, I say, what’s new pussycat?"

Gatomon was blown backwards by the intensity of the droning songs. Kari helped her up and stood defiantly at MetalEtemon. "I’m not afraid of you!"

"Now what’s goin’ on?" MetalEtemon exclaimed. "Two against one? Ah, doesn’t matter. You’re gonna sing your last duet, honey. Uhhuhhuh, uhhuhhuh! Banana…Split!"

MetalEtemon shot towards Kari. Gatomon charged him head on. "Leave…Kari…alone!"

Gatomon, digivolve to…Angewomon.

"Let’s take this bully!" Angewomon said. (Cue for "Hey digimon" music.)

"Celestial Arrow!"

"I’m made of ChromeDigizoid Metal!" MetalEtemon said, not budging an inch. "You can’t penetrate my hull with a bow and arrows! Uhhuhhuh!"

The arrow sliced directly through MetalEtemon’s trusty armor. MetalEtemon screamed, but disappeared. As opposed to the usual deletion process, he simply vanished.

"Did we beat him?" Salamon asked.

"We stopped him," Tai said grimly. "But he’ll be back."

Joe walked along the path. It was summer, and he really did have to get to the camp. It was a long bus ride, but at least his mom had agreed to pay the fare.

He would have to remember to thank Kari, too. He did not want everyone looking at his drawing.

He took out the picture. It was of Mimi, when he and Tai had found her at the Gekomon palace. He liked the picture, and carried it around, but obviously didn’t want Matt or Tai seeing it. Kari was a girl, she probably understood the importance of secrecy.

As he approached the cabin where he had stayed so long ago, he felt a wave of nostalgia. Or maybe it was pneumonia. There was a chill in the air, after all. He knew he should have worn a jacket, even if it was the summer. But then you have to take heat stroke into consideration, and—

He opened the door. The children, seven and eight were throwing pillows and screaming and enjoying themselves. "Okay everyone," Joe said. "I’m your counselor. Today we will be hiking."

"Look, it’s Joe," Patamon pointed Joe out for T.K. "He must be your counselor."

No one heard him. "I am your counselor, Joe. We are going to go hiking now." He was entirely ignored.

"I don’t think anyone is listening, though." T.K. said.

"Yeah," Patamon agreed, sympathetically. "Poor Joe."

Joe put his fingers in his ears. It was so loud…

"QUIET!"

The cabin was silent. Everyone was staring at Joe, noticing him for the first time. A couple seven-year-olds dropped their pillows

"Right," Joe said. "My name is Joe Kido, and I am your counselor. Were going to go hiking to today. Does anyone like hiking?"

T.K, the only one with real experience in hiking raised his hand. Everyone else just sat quietly on his or her beds.

"Well, that’s alright," Joe said. "Everyone has their separate interests. Okay, lets go!"

I hope they don’t catch pneumonia, or fall of a cliff, or get eaten by wolves, or something else, thought Joe. I am really not in the right kind of mood to call the paramedics.