Running down the hall to the door, I slam through it almost slipping on the wet metal leading down to the ground. I slowly walk down the stairs and run across the wet pavement. Sprinting to the park, I stop for a moment on top of a hill to see where Alyssa is. Searching for a few minutes I finally spot her next to the playground, swinging on the swing by her self. Slowly I walk right behind her and give her a small push from behind, startling her almost out of the small strip of a seat. She realizes who's pushing her and holds on the chain as I push her forward and back. After a while I let her momentum carry her as I sit on the swing next to her and watch as she swings by her self.
"Hey beautiful, lovely day huh." I say as she moves forward and back.
"Yeah, except for the dew on the grass. I'm not able to lay on it yet." Alyssa says looking at the shinny grass that sparkles in the sunshine.
"Yeah, well stop looking at it and it'll dry up faster" I say as I walk up to her and stop her from swinging any farther. I hold out my hand for her to grab it, as she stands up and entangle her hand with mine; we walk over to a bench a few feet away from the swings.
"Where are Aaron and Kristina? Weren't there coming?" I ask looking around the place. As we sit down she lays her head on my shoulder as though trying to fall asleep, unfortunately the wind starts picking up rather quickly as we sit on the already freezing cold bench. Blocking the wind from Alyssa's face I suggest that we walk back to the dorm where it's nice and warm. Agreeing with me, Alyssa and I walk back to the dorms off in the distance with my arm around her shoulders and her arm around my waist. As we pass a patch of climbing trees I spot a shadow figure behind one of them, passing it the shadow emerges showing the bully from last night.
"Hey, I want a rematch. That was unfair you caught my off guard." He says taking off his jacket. The same friends from last night also appear from behind the tree standing behind their leader.
"Off guard? Unlikely. I took you out easily and your friends ran off like sissies." I say mockingly. "Alyssa, can you wait for me behind the trees. These guys don't know when to quit." As I let go I whisper I love you in her ear, she walks over to the tree and leans up against it.
"Oh good this guy now has a cheerleader, how cute!" One of the guys says from behind their leader.
"So how do you want to do this? All at once, or one at a time, your pick." I say pulling my arm across my chest stretching it.
"All at once." The leader says as he motions for his buddies to surround me. As I look at Alyssa leaning against the tree I read her moving lips as the read "Don't fight." Amazed at her sudden change, I drop my arms.
"Do what you will, I won't fight you." I say looking at the guy square in the eye.
"What? You'll be pulverized." One of the guys behind me says.
"I don't know I can take a lot." I say turning my head sideways. Just as I move my head back towards the leader who's still in the middle, I see a squint of red in my eye as he digs his fist into my face. Falling to the ground hard, I get right back up and spit the blood out of my mouth. With the onslaught of fists and kicks all around my body I look at Alyssa whose covering her eyes from the sight, I quickly shove my fist into one of the guys gut sending him hunched over in pain. As the guy topples over with pain, Alyssa opens her eyes to see the guy on the ground. Disappointed she begins walking away, not wanting her to leave me quickly dodge a bunch of blows and run up to her, grab her hand and quickly run to the boy's dorm rooms. Shutting the door behind us and running quickly to my room, I open it to find Aaron and Kristina making out on his bed. Ignoring the sight I pull Alyssa into the room and Aaron and Kristina get off of each other and act as nothing happened.
"What happened?" Aaron asks seeing the blood dripping from my mouth.
"The same guy from last night came back with back-up." I say going into the bathroom to tend to my wounds.
"And he beat you this time?" Aaron says walking to the bathroom.
"No, Alyssa didn't want me to fight him so I didn't. Ouch!" I say as I place water on the cut just below my eyelid. I walk out of the bathroom after finishing my wounds, to find Alyssa gone out of the room.
"What? Where did she go?" I ask as Aaron surprised to see Kristina gone.
"I have no idea, they were here one minute then gone another. Damn sneaky girls." Aaron says as he opens the door to look down the hallway.
"Oh man, I hope I didn't hurt her feelings by hitting that guy." I say as I look into the hallway
"Don't worry man, she really likes you, she'll get over it." Aaron says confidently.
The next few hours went by extremely slowly, I tried calling Alyssa several times but each time it rings once then goes to voice mail. Not daring to go to her room, I just lay on my bed regretting hitting that guy. I look at the clock saying 1:30 pm; I doze off to the sound of rain pounding on the window behind me.
I wake up to the sound of my phone ringing in my pocket; I sit up to find that Aaron wasn't in the room. I flip my phone to see a text message. "We need you. Get to the factory quickly." The message was from Jeremie. I guess he didn't waste any time wanting my help. As I get up and put on my shoes, I walk towards the door and open it. To my astonishment, Alyssa standing right in my doorway sobbing. Looking straight at each other, I open my arms as she runs into them and encloses hers around my body.
"I'm sorry I hit that guy, I just couldn't take the pain of you leaving and them hitting me." I said in a almost confident voice.
"I should have let you take them down; I just don't want to see people fight anymore. My mom and dad always fought, even when they seemed happy. They didn't get along at all yet they stayed together for 35 years and still going." Alyssa says resting her head on my chest. Flipping open my phone behind her I text Jeremie "Busy, be there soon." I guide sobbing Alyssa to my bed and have her sit down on it as I pull up a chair and sit in front of her. Grabbing her hands, kissing one of them.
"You know the only reason I didn't fight back was because you asked me not to." I said hoping to brighten her eyes.
"I know. I wish there weren't jerks out there like them." Alyssa says now gripping tighter on my hands.
"Yeah, but I can't just let them walk all over me. I need to stand for what I can. For whatever it may be." I explain to her as she listens closely.
"Yeah, that's why next time. And I know there is going to be a next time I'm going to cheer for you as you take them down all at once." Alyssa says now smiling. She leans forwards and gives me a soft kiss, as our lips touch my phone beeps at me again. I take it out quickly to see another text from Jeremie. "In trouble, please hurry."
"Ah dang it, I hate being so nice." I say shutting my phone.
"It's okay, I get you tonight right?" she says as we stand up.
"You bet my room I'll draw you something that's not on a school desk." I say opening the door for her.
"Do well." Alyssa says as we part. She walks slowly down one way of the hallway as I sprint down the other. Opening the door roughly I jump down the stairs and sprint into the forest. Almost getting lost as I run through grove of trees and bushes and what not, I finally spot the tree with the manhole underneath. I quickly open the lip leading underground and I slide down the rickety ladder to the ground. Grabbing a skateboard leaned up against the wall I skate down the rounded tunnel, going through curves and underneath large pipes and what not. I finally reach the ladder leading up onto the bridge above, as I climb my phone starts beeping at me again. Instead of Jeremie asking where I am and what's taking so long, it's Alyssa. "Can't find Kristina or Aaron. Have you seen them?" I read the message as I sprint into the warehouse and slides down the rope to the bottom floor. "No, keep you in touch if I see them." I say as I'm going down the elevator to the bottom shaft. As the door opens I see Jeremie sitting on his chair staring at one of the screens to his left. I walk through to have him spin around to face me.
"Go down and get into Lyoko, Odd and Ulrich are already there, they need your help. I'll debrief you as you go down." Jeremie says throwing my in ear piece to shove into my ear. As I go back into the elevator door, Jeremie's voice sounds in my ear.
"Odd and Ulrich are in the sand section of Lyoko. They are fighting about 5 creatures that a computer virus called Xana created to stop us." Jeremie says over the mike. "Your job is to surprise those 5 creatures and take as many out as possible. I have equipped you with a pretty awesome weapon that you'll find very useful." As I walk into the chamber, Jeremie's voice disappears as I transfer onto Lyoko.
Opening my eyes, I find myself surrounded by a brown landscape. I look around to see what's going on, to see nothing but small wind blowing up dust as it whips it in circular motions.
"Ryo, Odd and Ulrich are over the ridge right in front of you." Jeremie says into my head. Running over to the ledge and looking over I see Ulrich in his black and orange outfit, behind Odd in some sort of armored purple gear.
"Okay, and by some miracle I get down there, how am I suppose to defend myself?" I ask looking around trying to spot a pointed rock. Without any luck Jeremie comes back.
"I am creating a weapon for you; it'll be ready by the time you get to the battle field." Jeremie says as I hear loud typing sounds from his mike.
"Okay great, how am I supposed to get to them? I can't exactly jump down there." I say looking around not seeing another way down.
"Got it covered." Jeremie says. "Look to your right."
Looking over my shoulder to the right I see as the space becomes distorted as a glider appears. With sleek glider and a handle hanging down, also equipped with a rocket powered on the back.
"Jeremie…. You rock!" I say excitedly going over to the glider. As I attach myself to the glider I see as Ulrich and Odd are dodging blasts from block looking creatures. Carefully walking over to the edge, I fall forward as the glider catches the air and yanks me upward. Air born for a few seconds, I begin to drop quickly towards the ground hundreds of feet below. Pressing a little red button on one of the handle bars, the sound of rushing rockets sounds behind me as I zoom towards the battle. Letting go of the boost a few hundred feet before the battle, I zoom over the block creatures as the fire at the dodging Ulrich and Odd. Flying closer and closer to the ground I whip around as I jump out of the glider landing behind the block creatures.
"Got it." Jeremie says and at that very second a large staff appears in front of me. With a rounded edge on one end of the staff and large sharp blade on the other, I pick it up and examine it. I playfully twirl it around trying to get a feel for it, as I'm doing that the block creatures realize that I'm behind them, two of the creatures twirl around with only the block part and starts shoot at me. Running to the side to dodge the red laser blasts, I quickly change pace to go towards the block creatures. Twirling the new staff as I run I quickly notice, and learn that as I twirled the staff fast enough. Some of the laser blasts were unable to penetrate that swinging stick. As I approached the backing away block creatures I gain speed as they move backwards, closing in I throw my staff high into the air. Distracting them as the staff flies helplessly in the sky, Odd and Ulrich both get the chance at defeating 3 out of the five block creatures. Grabbing the staff just before it hits the ground I throw my staff as hard as I could towards the block creature. Spearing it through the target symbol, it begins to shake and explodes harmlessly. With no weapon to defend myself, I now face myself against the last block creature. Looking at the creature I feel a sort of heaviness come over my left thigh as a strap appears. Opening the pouch attached to the strap I find 3 or 4 throwing knives.
"Jeremie, you're a live savor." I say grabbing one.
"I do what I can." Jeremie says as I hear him cracking his knuckles over the mike.
As the target begins to glow red once more, I quickly dive to the right miss being snagged by one of the beams of red, as I roll across I throw the knife across the air and it seemed to attract to the block creature because it flew right into the target. Expecting another lame explosion, it erupts in flames and engulfs have of the area.
"Exploding throwing knives." Jeremie says laughing.
"Yeah that would have been nice to know ahead of time." I say picking up a spare knife to examine it. As I shove the knife back into the pouch Ulrich and Odd quickly appear by my side.
"Hey Einstein. How come we didn't get a glider?" Odd says looking at the sleek glider a few hundred feed away.
"Odd…. You have a board that glides. That should be enough considering it's served you well." Jeremie says as he sends our Odds board. Distorting the area the board appears on the ground next to Odd.
"Hey Jeremie, should we go and check out that crevice over there? Seems kind of secluded, never know what might happen." Ulrich says looking to his right. Off in the distance is a small upgrade of land as the landscape grows higher and higher. Right in the middle of the upgrade is a crack which seems to lead pretty far through the ground.
"What crevice?" Jeremie says confused sounding.
"That one, over there about 500 yards to the right of us." Ulrich says walking towards it a little.
"That part doesn't even appear on my map. Go check it out; I'll monitor it as you approach. Hopefully I'll be able to tell you if it's safe or not." Jeremie says as we start for the long distance. With Odd and Ulrich on the hover board, I grab my new toy and zoom off towards the upgrade of land mass. Flying along there doesn't seem to be anything different about the land. But as we approach I see something large move underneath the dirt.
"Hey, did you just see that?" I asked looking downward at the ground.
"Yeah, Jeremie got any ideas?" Ulrich says looking around for more signs of the ground moving.
"No idea. Approach with caution, don't do anything hasty." Jeremie says
"I'll go ahead and see if anything looks funky." I say as I turn on my boosters. Speeding off I lose Ulrich and Odd in an instant. Speeding off I let go of the boosters as I reach the end of the land we just fought on. Stopping and gliding towards the ground, I land rather harshly and skid on my knee.
"I need to work on my landing." I say rubbing my knee. "Hey Jeremie, there's a bridge leading to the crevice. Should I go?" Before I have any time to get a response the ground starts shaking like crazy. Struggling to keep my balance I watch as the small bridge leading to the crevice falls apart and disappears from view. Running to my glider I speed off into the air to see what made the quake. I take out my staff ready for anything, as I stand it up next to me; I fall to the ground hard.
"What the heck was that?" I say to myself
"What was that?" Jeremie says overhearing
"I just like got tripped and fell to the ground." I say as a searing pain erupts in my stomach almost like a fist was jammed in. Bending over in pain I look up to see nothing, dropping my staff to the ground I watch as it gets picked up and floats in midair.
"Ryo, explain what's happening." Jeremie says
"Well, if you were here Jeremie you wouldn't believe it either. But my staff is now twirling dangerously in midair and I can't make out what's going on. Is it a glitch?" I say backing away from my getting closer staff.
"No I don't think so." Jeremie says
"Laser Arrow!" Odd yells
At that moment an arrow shoots through the space of where my staff was being held. Behind my staff something begins to show itself as its camouflage begins to fade, I sprint towards the figure and knocks him to the ground. Grabbing my staff I shove the bladed side to his neck.
"What is this?" I say looking at the figure as it fades in and out from view.
"I have no idea." Ulrich says getting off the board. "Haven't seen anything like it."
"You fools don't know what's in store for you guys. Ha at this very moment one of your precious programs is being held prisoner. Come and get her if you dare." The invisible figure says. Having enough I shove my staff into the ground, realizing I missed I yank it out as I see a flash of light where the creature vanished.
"Great, so now we have another enemy." Odd says sitting down.
"Sure looks like it. Wait another enemy? We have enemies? Gaps…. Fill in please." I say getting anxious to know what the heck is going on. As Jeremie quickly went through all the details, he created more gaps then filled so I basically just gave up and went with the program.
"Okay I need you guys back here; we need to go through our situation. Aelita and Yumi are here waiting for you guys." Jeremie says
A few moments later, the doors of the chamber let up and I see as Odd and Ulrich walk onto the elevator. Running to it before it leaves upwards, I almost get my foot caught in the door. The door opens to reveal Jeremie spinning around to face us in his chair and having two girls standing next to him. One had black hair and a black shirt and black pants. Pretty much a black type of person, I learned quickly she was not to mess with, but a pretty awesome girl. The other was the total opposite, she wore almost all pink. In fact, her hair was pink as well.
"Ryo, this is Aelita and Yumi. They're part of the team." Jeremie says introducing them. I walk up to shake their hands.
"Nice to meet you." I say shaking their hands.
"Likewise, you look familiar." Yumi says trying to figure out where she knows me.
"I think we have biology together." I say remembering the black outfit. "So, I take it black is your favorite color and pink is yours?" Getting a good laugh out of the bunch we all stop.
"Well I have plans tonight and I need to be there or else big trouble it in dating department." I say walking towards to elevator. "You guys have my number; call me when you need me." With those last few words the elevator door shuts and lifts me up to the bottom floor of the factory. Climbing quickly up the ladder, I run out the door and slide down the manhole and into the tunnel. Wasting no time, I get to the other side in less than a minute and up and half way to the school with plenty of time to spare. Running up the wet and slippery stairs I get inside and in my dorm quickly. Aaron is there sitting at my computer typing away on the computer. He barely notices me as I walk in and sit on my bed with my back against the wall. Looking at Aaron I spot on his screen a pink window.
"What are you doing?" I ask as I untie my shoes. Almost falling out of his chair startled, he turns around with wide open eyes.
"When did you get in here?" Aaron says closing the pink window.
"Dude, I've been here for at least a few minutes. Having fun talking to Kristina?" I say teasing him.
"Heh, how did you know I was talking to her?" He asks reopening the window revealing the pink window.
"Who else would you talk to online and make the window pinkish." I say trying not to laugh.
"Yeah well it was Alyssa at first, but then she let Kristina on. I'll tell her to tell Alyssa you just got back." Aaron says typing the sentence into the computer. Not a second later I my phone start singing with a new message. "Hey honey." The message from Alyssa says. Setting the phone down I go into the bathroom to get ready for tonight. Half an hour later, I walk out smelling good, with gel in my hair and good clean clothes on. I walk to my bed to finish my grooming. Aaron turns around and holds his nose not used to my new body spray.
"Dude you smell like an apricot." He says letting go of his nose.
"Yeah, Alyssa enjoys apricots. Kind of sad that I know that huh." I say realizing I've only been with her a day and know pretty much all about her. Getting up to grab a coat from the closet, I accidentally knock a couple things on the floor. Bending over to pick them up, a knock on the door makes me jump and I smack my head on one of my drawers. Walking over to the door rubbing my injured head, I open it and basically my mouth drops to the floor. Standing at the door with a bright blue shirt and my white overcoat, with white khaki pants on and brown designed shoes.
"You'd look more attractive if you shut your mouth Ryo." Alyssa says as she leans up and gives me a soft kiss on the lips.
"Wow, can you get any more beautiful?" I ask still looking at her. She has just the right amount of glitter on her cheeks and bright blue eye-liner. Most of her hair is let down but still has about half of it up in a pony tail. Standing outside in the hallway, she squeezes by me and sits on my bed. Me not realizing she had moved past me, turn around still amazed at the beautiful she emits.
"Day two and we're going on our first date." I say walking over to her. "Man, I picked the right girl. Didn't I Aaron?" Turning around from the computer Aaron stares at Alyssa.
"Dude, who's this sitting on your bed? YOU'RE DATING ALYSSA!" Aaron bellows almost laughing.
"Oh shut up, you know darn well I'm Alyssa. I just don't have many occasions to wear make up." Alyssa says looking at Aaron.
"Yeah, well you know you look beautiful even without the make up so. Where do you want to go babe?" I ask looking at her blissfully thinking she has no idea where we're going. "Here, let me show you where we're going." Grabbing her hand I pull her up to me and give her a soft kiss. "Later Aaron, Don't stay up too late." With that I open the door for Alyssa; Aaron just waves his hand as I shut the door behind us. Walking down the street, with a beautiful night sky above us, each star with its own brightness and beauty. Walking side by side having our arms wrapped around each other we walk slowly throughout the campus. Finally we reach a small incline towards a hill, as we begin climbing Alyssa clenches closely to me acting as though cold. When we finally reach the top we can see for miles, countless lights fill the area below us as we watch the fading sunlight disappear beyond the horizon. Showing her a small magic trick I whip out a large blanket and flap it onto the ground. We sit on a bench wrapped in this warm blanket cuddled with each other.
"Ryo, do you think anything will change between us? I mean we've known each other since you arrived here almost 6 months ago and we're just barely dating." Alyssa asks looking up at me resting her head against my chest. Leaning down I give her a small soft kiss on her beautiful lips.
"No, I don't think anything will change; mainly because I've liked you ever since you showed me around the school, I just never had to guts to ask you out until last night." I say grabbing her hand and firmly holding it. "And I'm sorry I didn't do this 6 months ago." Teary eyed Alyssa pulls herself up and gives me a kiss. An hour goes by and the daylight finally disappears into the darkness, looking at my watch and seeing that her curfew is coming up, I kiss her for a few more minutes as I motion that she needs to be heading back.
"So much has happened these past couple days huh?" I say as I fold up the blanket. "You think you can handle being with a guy like me? Looking at me Alyssa just laughs.
"Your better then the other guys I've dated." She says as we link hands and walk down the small hill. "Not to mention I plan on being with you for a good while."
"You already know that? Man we've only been dating for 2 days, I must be good" I say mockingly.
"Eh, your alright." She says smiling and gives me a kiss on the cheek. Walking to her dorm room we give our hugs and kisses at the bottom of the stares, as she parts up the dares I cant help but notice how cute her butt moves. Walking away before she notices my stare I start walking towards the football field. Looking back quickly I spot her looking back at me as she opens the door.
"Yes!" I say to my self while running back to the dorm rooms. Not stopping to go slowly up the slippery stares, I almost slip three times. I quickly go to my room and as I'm taking out my key.
"Hey Ryo" A voice says to my right. Looking over I see Jeremie walking down the hall with a towel wrapped around his shoulders and a toothbrush in his mouth.
"Oh, Hey Jeremie." I say unlocking my door. "Why are you out here brushing your teeth? You have a bathroom." Looking at him a little weird he takes the toothbrush out of his mouth and shoves it in his pocket.
"Yeah, well I saw you running across the field and thought I'd come say hi." Jeremie says waving at me.
"Well… umm…. Hi?" I say waving back. As I open my door Kristina bursts out of the room and sprints down the room pulling on her shirt. Astonished I say my goodbyes to Jeremie and go into the room to find Aaron on his bed. Smiling I just walk over to my bed acting as I say nothing, taking off my shoes and jacket throwing them at my closet, I climb underneath the covers.
"What?" Aaron says. "Oh shut up. Good night."
