"Honestly Jeremy, I don't know what you're freaking out about," Ulrich said as Jeremy threw some shirts in his suitcase.
"Well how would you feel if you left for vacation while Yumi had to stay here at Kadic all alone for a week," Odd pointed out.
"I wouldn't feel anything because, one, Yumi doesn't live at Kadic, and two, it's not like I-"
"It's not the same for Aelita and you know it," Jeremy interrupted.
"Yeah yeah but Jeremy have you ever considered this," Odd stepped in front of his friend poked his huge forehead, "Maybe Aelita just wants some alone time."
He glared at Odd as he rubbed his forehead but he pondered this for a moment, "Really?"
"Yeah everyone needs those moments when they can just be alone," Ulrich added, "Plus we're literally always together. The only time we're apart is at night-except for me, I'm always stuck with that," he made a gesture to Odd who grinned.
"Well, that," Odd spoke to Jeremy, "or she's just sick of you," he then stuck his tongue out at the blond.
Jeremy mimicked the gesture; "But what if XANA attacks?! Who will-"
"For crying out loud Jeremy," Ulrich sat up, "Aelita's not a little kid, she can fight on Lyoko AND virtualize herself."
"And I'm just a phone call away as usual," Yumi said.
The boys turned their heads to see Yumi standing at the door way, accompanied by none other than William Dunbar.
"And, well uhm , I'm not going anywhere for the break," William decided to add, "So if anyone needs another warrior..." his voice trailed off; the sound of his voice made Ulrich's jaw clench.
"Uhm, thanks for the offer," Yumi smiled at him. The boy nodded, sensing that his presence was not welcomed, he left.
Yumi walked into the room, acting as if that semi-awkward scene did not happen,"Enough about XANA, why aren't you guys gone yet? I was waiting for you guys but Jim said none of you had signed out yet."
"Einstein thought he'd cancel on his dad at last minute so he never bothered to pack," Ulrich gestured to the blond who had Odd sitting on top his suitcase as they tried to close it.
The four went together to sign out and together they walked to the main gates.
"So why didn't we invite Aelita to walk with us, "Yumi asked as they walked away from Jim, who just so happened to rather not want to talk about his time in the military.
Jeremy chose his words carefully, "Well, I thought, maybe, we could give her some, uh, space?"
Yumi nodded slowly and looked as though she wanted to ask more but Ulrich's voice interrupted, "Hm."
The gang looked at him, only to see their friend looking down at his phone.
"Everything okay buddy?" Odd asked.
He shrugged, "Apparently my father is stuck in traffic and still has to pick up my mom," his face, as always, held no emotion.
They had just about reached the gates they noticed there was a man, a taxi driver, who looked ever so tired, holding up a sign that read "DELLA ROBBIA"
"Well that's my ride," Odd fist bumped the gang and started walking to the car. Once inside, he rolled down the window and called out, "Hey! Tell Aelita I said bye if you see her!"
"We will!" The gang called to him as the car pulled off and left Kadic.
Ulrich adjusted the strap of his bag, "I'm gonna hit the rec room, Jeremy," he nodded to his friend, "You coming?"
Jeremy shook his head, "I'm gonna wait here for my dad, he shouldn't take long."
Ulrich nodded and gave his friend a fist bump. He turned to Yumi, "See you in a week." He stretched out his arms just a little to give her a hug, but quickly decided that was a bad idea so he shoved his hands in his pockets and settled for a dorky smile, then quickly walked away.
Then there were two good friends waiting in an empty school yard.
"Jeremy."
"Hm?"
"You okay?"
The wind blew through the yard as Jeremy pondered the question. Of course he was okay. He had perfect grades, the perfect parents, perfect friends, perfect crush but..
"Is it wrong to be worried for Aelita?"
She wasn't his girlfriend. At least, not officially, but still. He couldn't help it. She meant so much to him and-
"No. but," Yumi paused his thoughts and spoke carefully, "But she's a big kid and she can take care of herself. You mean well but you should go spend time with your parents. How long has it been since you saw them?"
"Since summer vacation..."
"They probably miss you a lot. Don't worry about Aelita or XANA. Remember, I'm still here," She bumped her shoulder against his, "In fact, I'm going to ask her to hang out with me right now!"
Jeremy smiled, "Where are you two going to go?"
"There's this pretty cool mall that opened just opened," Yumi said.
"Well have fun, you two should go now, I'll just call my dad and-" he had went to reach for his phone in his pocket but it wasn't there, "I think I left my phone-"
"Get going Jeremy," Yumi laughed as she headed to the girls dorm, "I'll tell Aelita you said bye!"
Jeremy nodded as he walked back to his room; he would like however, to say bye to Aelita himself, but he decided to stick to what the guys told him and give her some space. Maybe that really is all she wanted. Maybe after this week she'll have enough space to last her a whole year.
"Well that's that." Aelita spoke her thoughts out loud enough though she was the only one in the gym. She was exiting when she heard someone call her name.
"Aelita!"
It was Yumi.
"Hey, what's up?"
Yumi caught up to her friend and said, "I called you ten times but you didn't answer!"
Aelita pulled her pink phone out of her pocket and noticed several missed calls from Yumi.
"Oh no, I'm so sorry Yumi," She did a little bow with her head to express her apologizes, "Jim doesn't like it when phones go off while we're taking inventory, I guess I just got in to the habit of putting it on silent, even when he's not with me."
"It's no big deal. I was wondering, since the guys are gone we should hang out! Let's go to the mall and do some shopping and then get dinner."
Jeremy left... without saying bye?
"Mhm! Sounds like a date," Aelita nodded and the two girls left the school together.
The two girls reached the mall in no time flat.
Whoa.
Whoa indeed, this mall was HUGE. Probably fifteen floors, which in truth is twelve too many for a mall. Weirdly enough for such a huge mall it was pretty empty. "It opened recently," Yumi explained, "So not many people know of it yet."
Yumi lead Aelita to a small store in the basement of the mall; the store was very simple: it had the average coats, jackets, shoes, shirts and jeans. Simple but sadly not entirely cheap;for Aelita at least.
She walked to the coats section while Yumi went to look at some boots; It'll be getting cold soon and the only coat Aelita had was the one Yumi gave her when she was first virtualized in the real world. But that was three long years ago and the coat no longer fits properly.
The cheapest coat there was $45 which was out of her budget. Students at Kadic who don't have any money, like her, get a special budget from the school, however in order to make a little extra cash, she had to do random jobs at the school: take inventory of the sports equipment, clean all the beakers in the lab, tutor younger students, etc. But even with all those extra jobs she did, it still was not enough. Of course she knew she could count on her friends but, there were just somethings one had to do on ones own.
As Jeremy walked to his room he heard a much too familiar beeping noise coming from inside.
"Oh nononononononononono," he kept muttering no till he opened the door and saw the symbol flash on his computer screen.
"Nonononononono," he kept muttering as he grabbed his phone off his bed and dialed Aelita's cell phone.
It was not to his knowledge however, that Aelita and Yumi where in a basement with no cell phone service.
The boy kept muttering as he called Yumi's phone but threw in a quick "Please pick up please pick up." Alas she did not.
He turned down the hall and sprinted down the steps as he called Odd.
"So that time I was ten years old so you'd think it would be traumatizing but my parents found me before anyone else saw so it wasn't too bad. Anyway my other sister, Marie, she's always- oh hang on, hey it's Jeremy! Hey buddy!"
Odd's been talking none stop to his driver from the moment they pulled away from Kadic; Thankfully for the driver they were only ten minutes away from the airport so he wouldn't have to hear another story about how this kid's sisters locked him outside the house wearing only pokeball boxers.
"Uhm, mister, listen change of plans. Could you- drive me here instead?" Still on the phone with Jeremy, he handed the driver a slip of paper with an address scribbled on it.
"But, we're almost at the airport," The driver pointed out as he took the slip.
"Yeah but it's an emergency," Odd rummaged through his duffel bag looking for his wallet, "Ah! I have more money if you're worried I can't pay the meter!"
The driver sighed dearly, typed the address into his GPS, and made a U-turn.
Odd smiled into his phone, "I'll be there soon Einstein! Now, Dennis, let me tell you about the time Adel tried to tape me to ceiling."
Ulrich knew: his dad wasn't really stuck in traffic, they had forgotten about today. No surprise there. In fact Ulrich would rather they didn't remember till the end of week; at least that way he could've spent this week somewhere he actually felt somewhat happy.
His father had messaged him that they'd be there in twenty minutes. When his father said twenty minutes he actually meant fifteen minutes-except when it comes to Ulrich, it actually means forty minutes, an hour at most. Not a problem for the Ulrich. He was enjoying his secret pleasure, binge watching Naruto.
"Ulrich!"
Jeremy had ran, more like slid into the rec room, his face was sweaty-the kid really had to exercise more.
"XANA, attack-"
"Got it," He turned the TV off, "Did you warn the others?"
"Yumi and Aelita won't answer, they're at some new mall. Odd said he'll meet us there," Jeremy looked like he wanted nothing more to sit on the couch and just rest until XANA had finish implementing his attack.
Ulrich grabbed Jeremy by the arm and exited the room, "I'll go get the girls, I'm pretty sure I know where this place is," he gave Jeremy a shove in the direction of the park with the secret tunnel, "You go meet Odd, I'll bring the others there soon." Ulrich was already running off to the main gates.
Jeremy wasted no time getting to the tunnel except he was caught trying to get down into the sewers.
"Jeremy? Everything okay?" It was William.
"Not really," he closed the lid over him but William was persistent, "He opened the lid and called down to Jeremy, "Do you need help?"
"No thanks William, the others will be there soon," Jeremy grabbed his scooter and kicked off.
"Call me if-"
"Dunbar?! What's wrong with you?" Jim bellowed at the boy who was leaning down into the sewers.
"Uh, heh?" William gave the gym teacher an awkward smile as he raised his head from the sewers.
"Aelita, which do you think is better?" Yumi held up two pairs of exactly the same boots except one was a lighter shade of black.
"Uh," Oh how was Aelita going to tell her friend she did not care at all about the two different shades of black.
"Yumi! Aelita!" Ulrich was running up to the girls,"We have a situation!"
Oh thank you Ulrich.
"What's wrong?" Aelita asked.
"XANA," Ulrich said simply.
"Let's go," Yumi dropped the boots and the three started out the store.
It started out really soft, one wouldn't even notice it. The three were so close to the exit of the mall when it happened. The ceiling came crumbling down on top of everyone and the floors became so shaky they started cracking and breaking apart. An earthquake. The mall didn't seem full at all before but now with all the screaming and running, the area seemed to be full of people trying to reach the exit.
"Aelita!" Ulrich pushed the pink haired girl out of the way. Within seconds the rest of the ceiling came falling down on top of them, Aelita was so close to the door thanks to Ulrich's quick thinking and she was able to exit as a chunk of the building fell in front of the door blocking the exit way-trapping Ulrich and Yumi inside.
