Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko or any of the characters in this story but Valerie.


"Go get it Kiwi! Go on boy!"

We stood silently, hidden in the shadows of the trees, as we watched Odd pick up the ball once more in a futile attempt to teach his brainless dog the simple game of fetch. "We" were myself and Valerie.

Valerie was my height, with dark brown hair that fell just past her shoulders, and dark eyes. She was pretty, but I didn't really see her as competition. She was a rich girl who was fluent in sarcasm and at times seemed mean, but she meant well. Kind of like me. You know…except for the part about being rich. Conveniently enough for me, she'd transferred to Kadic just days after I'd decided to drop Herb and Nicholas, and ended up being my roommate. It was like the planets had aligned to make us friends.

"Fetch, Kiwi!"

I continued watching, and was shocked to see Kiwi chase after the ball.

Maybe he's not brainless after all.

I stared as Kiwi bounded after the ball, picked it up with his mouth…then promptly dug a hole, dropped the ball in, and covered it up with dirt.

Valerie snorted. "Nice."

Scratch that. That dog is the definition of stupid.

Valerie poked me in my side, earning my attention and an annoyed glare to go with it.

"What?"

"Sissi, why are we here?" She asked irritably.

I frowned at her, and then turned back to the scene in front of me. I couldn't really answer the question. It was a beautiful Saturday morning; the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and students had full permission to leave school grounds on the weekends. There were so many other things that we could be doing. A fact that Valerie hadn't let me forget even once today. She'd complained the entire way here, and made sure I was well informed of the fact that she thought I was "a total nutcase" for spying on my boyfriend. Boyfriend. That one word made my stomach do silly little flip flops.

Although calling him my boyfriend was a bit of a stretch. Lately, Odd and I had gotten close. Really close. Close enough to be considered an official couple? I had no idea. I honestly didn't know what Odd and I were to each other.

Maybe that's why I'm here.

Even as I thought it, I knew that was the reason. Odd was notorious for how many girls he'd dated at Kadic, and since he wasn't technically mine, and I wasn't technically his...things could happen. So naturally, I couldn't have a moment's peace unless I knew for sure that he wasn't with some other girl.

A disgruntled sigh knocked me from my thoughts. "Sissi."

I turned to face Valerie, expecting to hear an entire presentation about why we should be at the mall.

"We've been here long enough. It's obvious to me that Odd would rather try to teach his dog tricks than hang out with any other girls. And if that's the case," She said, glancing back at Odd, who was now trying to sweet-talk Kiwi into giving him the ball. "He'll be out here all day."

"…"

"Not to mention that if he happens to catch you out here, you'll either look like a girl with major trust issues…or a stalker. Oh, and it will be just you. I'm going to the mall with or without you. Preferably with." Valerie said, cracking a small reassuring smile.

I sighed and reluctantly let her pull me out of the park, back onto the school grounds and out into town.


We got back to school ten minutes before 10 o'clock, which was the curfew for high school students. I'd convinced myself that I was just being paranoid about Odd, and I needed to loosen up and have some fun. He hadn't crossed my mind for the rest of the day. Not even as we climbed the stairs to the girls' dorms, our arms loaded down with shopping bags.

Once we were almost up the stairs and the hallway was in view, something only a little bigger than my fist hit me square in the face. Hard. It was like someone had thrown a beanbag at my face full force.

"Ouch!" I screeched, throwing my arm out to grab onto the railing and steady myself. Tears of pain welled up in my eyes. I blinked furiously, trying to clear my vision and ignore the stinging pain I felt in my face, but before I could get a good look at what had hit me – or better yet, the idiot who threw it – Valerie let out a shriek that could wake the dead.

I looked up – which was almost pointless because I still couldn't see properly – to see a big…blurry…thing that must've been thrown down the stairs too, since it was flying straight at me. Whatever it was, it freaked Valerie out and she threw out her hands to avoid it, making her chocolate shake fly up into the air. What happened next you could probably guess for yourselves, but I'll tell you anyway. It all happened in a flash, but I felt like I was watching it in slow motion. The object hit me in my chest – and moved. The force of the impact made me lose my balance and my hold on the railing. Before I knew it, I was rolling down the stairs. A word of advice: stairs hurt. Don't fall down a case of them.

I don't remember shooting out my arm to stop my fall, but I must have because luckily, my hand caught hold of one of the bars on the railing. Unluckily, when I was pulling myself to my feet, Valerie's chocolate shake decided to obey the laws of gravity.

"Sissi! Look ou–"

Splat.

Valerie screamed a minute too late. The icy chocolate mess landed all over me. It was in my hair, on my face, and staining my favorite pink shirt. My shopping bags were all over the stairs; some were ripped and had clothes falling out. It was a disaster.

"…"

"…"

"Arf, arf!"

I looked up, and sure enough, standing on the stair that I fell off of, with a little ball in his mouth, was Odd's dumb dog.

"Kiwi!" It was at this moment that Odd came rushing down the stairs with Ulrich, Jeremy and Aelita behind him. I could've just died. I mean, it was bad enough that Odd was here, did he have to bring an audience with him?

"There you are boy. Hey! You caught the ball! My smart little diggity dog..." Odd continued to praise Kiwi for catching the ball, apparently not noticing the mess on the stairs. Unfortunately, Ulrich, Jeremy and Aelita noticed. They stared at me with their mouths opening and closing like fish out of water. Just then, Odd finally decided to look up. "Whoa," He said holding Kiwi close, and staring at me wide eyed. "What happened to you?"

That was the last straw for me. I wanted to burst into tears, but I wasn't about to give anyone the satisfaction of seeing me cry. "Oh, move!" I said, pushing him out of my way.


Odd's POV

"Ulrich!"

I stared at Ulrich waiting for him to roll over but he didn't budge.

"Ulrich." I said again. Ulrich didn't have his earplugs in; either he was dead or he could hear me. I yanked the sheets off of him and he finally rolled over and glared at me.

"What?" Ulrich snapped.

I ignored his attitude. If he had answered me the first time he could've avoided the whole covers-being-pulled-off thing.

"I taught Kiwi a new trick!" I said holding Kiwi up excitedly.

After spending my whole Saturday outside with Kiwi trying to teach him to fetch, he finally got the hang of it. And I wasn't going to bed unless I shared the good news with everyone. I had already grouped up Jeremy and Aelita – against their will – and Ulrich was the last. After all, they were the main people who constantly mistook Kiwi's undeveloped genius for stupidity.

"And?" Ulrich replied, unimpressed.

"That's what I said." Jeremy grumbled.

I frowned. "And get up. I want you all to see how smart Kiwi is." I said, grinning down at Kiwi.

"And I'm guessing you won't leave us alone unless we do."

"You guessed right."

In moments we were standing in the deserted hallway to watch Kiwi fetch. I set Kiwi on the ground gently and dug the ball out of my pocket. Kiwi barked excitedly.

"Shhh!" I said, not wanting to attract Jim. "Alright Kiwi, fetch!" I said throwing the ball as hard as I possibly could. A little too hard actually. The ball hit a wall and disappeared around the corner where the stairs were. Kiwi chased after the ball, and disappeared around the corner too.

"Kiwi!" I hissed, knowing that if Jim found him, Kiwi's days at Kadic were over.

As if he could sense me thinking about him, Jim appeared at the end of the hall. "Hey! What are you kids up to?"

"Up to? Why whatever do you mean Jim?" I said, playing the innocent card.

He snorted and looked down at me suspiciously. "You know exactly what I mean Della Robia. It's 3 minutes past curfew and not only do you have a girl down here in the boys' dorms," Jim eyed Aelita just as suspiciously as he had done to me. "But the whole gang's here, standing in the middle of the hallway seemingly doing nothing." Jim started to pace in front of us like a detective who'd just solved a mystery. "But I know you're up to something! Because you four and the Ishiyama girl are always up to something when it looks like nothing, to cover up the fact that it's actually something instead of it not being anything at all!"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Speechless are you? Well good. Yes sir, you have to wake up pretty early in the morning to fool old Jimbo. It just so happens that I used to be a detective in…"

Jim's words sounded far away as I heard several thumps and screeches coming from the staircase that Kiwi had gone down. I exchanged glances with Aelita, Ulrich and Jeremy, hoping Jim wouldn't hear the noise and make his way down there.

"…But I'd rather not talk about it. So get to bed all four of ya." Jim grunted and walked back the way he came.

The second Jim was out of sight we headed for the stairs. I rushed down the stairs two at a time and the first thing I saw when I was halfway down was Kiwi, with his mouth clamped tightly on the ball.

"There you are boy. Hey! You caught the ball! My smart little diggity dog..." I grinned proudly. He was such a little genius!

I looked up, about to announce to my friends that they owed Kiwi an apology for all the times they'd called him "brainless", but when I looked up I noticed my surroundings.

The staircase was a mess. Shopping bags were all over the place, with clothes and accessories falling out of some them. There were drops of…brown liquid everywhere. And a plastic cup. And standing in front of me was the biggest mess of all. Sissi. Her hair was messed up and the same brown stuff on the floor was running through it. Her clothes were wrinkled and her pink top was covered in brown stains. The area around her nose looked a little red too, almost like she'd been hit in the face with something.

What the hell?

I held Kiwi tightly and stared at Sissi in absolute shock. Before I could stop myself, I was blurting out the stupidest, most insensitive thing I could say at a time like this. "Whoa. What happened to you?" I regretted my words as soon as I let them slip. But it was too late. I saw a flash of hurt in her eyes for a fraction of a second, and then she set her face in an unreadable expression.

"Oh, move!" Sissi shoved me roughly and marched off with her friend Valerie. I hadn't seen them for very long, but I knew my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. Tears. Tears in her eyes. I'd made her cry.

God, I'm so stupid.

I turned around slowly and handed Kiwi to Ulrich. "Could you take him back to the room?" I asked softly.

Ulrich nodded, and Aelita and Jeremy took the hint and left with him. I had to make it up to her. After all…she was sort of my girlfriend.


Sissi's POV

I stepped out of the shower, and into the steam that was filling up the bathroom. After towel drying my hair, I put on some pajamas and made my way back to my room. I'd been in the shower using up all the hot water for at least half an hour because taking really long showers normally made my mood a little better. Tonight however, the shower hadn't completely done its job. I didn't feel like I wanted to cry anymore, but as I walked down the dimly lit hallway I got madder and madder.

This was all Odd's fault. Dogs weren't even allowed at Kadic in the first place! But of course being…him, he just had to go breaking rules from the first day he'd come to this school. I heard his stupid, insensitive, scornful voice in my head again.

"Whoa. What happened to you?"

"Stupid Odd," I grumbled as I reached my door and flung it open. Valerie jumped when I came in, but I slammed the door behind me and kept grumbling like I didn't notice her. "With his stupid dog, and his stupid ego, and his stupid inhuman appetite…" I sat on my bed, thinking of more stupid things about Odd, but when I opened my mouth to say them, they didn't come out sounding as spiteful as they were supposed to. "And his stupid muscles…and his stupid cute face…and the stupid way he always makes me laugh…and the way his stupid kisses-"

"Ew!" Valerie exclaimed, not wanting to hear me talk about the way Odd's stupid kisses made me feel.

I hugged my knees against my chest, wondering if Odd actually cared about me the way I'd grown to care about him. I wanted to close my eyes, drift into a dreamless sleep and forget about this awful day, but it was at that exact moment that I remembered my hard day's worth of shopping still scattered all over the stairs. I wasn't about to let all that money I spent go to waste, so I hopped off my bed and walked over to the door. I opened the door and let out a tiny squeak of surprise when I saw Odd crouched down at the foot of the door…with all my stuff.

Odd straightened up and smiled sheepishly at me. "Hey."

"What are you doing here?" I said. I folded my arms and ignored the fact that the sight of him had made my heart slam into overdrive. We still weren't on good terms.

"I brought your stuff from off the stairs." He gestured to the bags lying at my feet.

I raised an eyebrow. "I'm not blind."

He sighed. "Sissi I'm sorry. For- for everything. Kiwi bumping into you, and…what I said. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." He pulled a bag that I hadn't noticed before from behind his back. I looked at it with a confused expression. It was a shopping bag – but it wasn't one of mine.

Odd gave me a satisfied smirk when he realized he'd caught me off guard. "These are for you." He reached into the bag and pulled out a bouquet of roses and a new pink top.

I gaped at them in surprise. As unbelievable as this might sound, no one had ever given me flowers before. I reached out and took the blouse and flowers from him, wondering where he'd even gotten these from so late at night.

"So? Am I forgiven?"

I smiled at him. "I'm not too sure I want to forgive you yet." I answered.

He took a step forward, invading my personal space. "Well let me help you make up your mind." With that, he put a hand under my chin and brought our lips together. His lips were soft, but his kiss was firm and – annoyingly – experienced. So I couldn't help but wrap my arms around his neck and melt into his arms as our lips moved in sync.

'What is this boy doing to me?' I thought, as we stood there in plain sight with our lips locked for Jim and anyone who happened to walk by to see.

I'm more of a "holding grudges" kind of girl. If it had been any other boy, I would've made him work for my love. And I mean really work. But I just couldn't stay mad at Odd. He made my heart flutter and my knees weak. It was ridiculous.

'He's making me soft…' I thought. But at that moment with Odd, I was thinking that maybe being soft wasn't such a bad thing.


Okay. So that was the first chapter. I hope you guys liked it! Feel free to review! I'm always open to constructive criticism, so yeah.

- colemanfan242