Milly and Tamiya were in the hallway outside the gym recording for their news report. It was an exciting time since everyone was hyped up for the school dance that was held every year, for all class men and women.
"Hello fellow students of Kadic Junior High, it's your ace reports, Milly and Tamiya, are here to give you today's school news, and it's really big. As you already know, tonight is the big night, the night of our annual school prom," the small red haired girl said.
Tamiya panned over to the doors of the gym to look inside, pointing her camera at three students around a ladder. Ulrich Stern, Odd Della Robbia, and Yumi Ishiyama. They were looking up at another one of their friends on the ladder.
"Unfortunately, our camera's weren't authorized to film the area where the festivities take place, but I can make out from where I'm speaking the girl who might be crowned our beauty queen tonight. Just as she was last year, I mean of course, our principal's daughter, Sissi,'" Milly reported, looking in at the gym and smiling.
Said girl walked out of the gym and overlooked the younger girl. Sissi's straight black hair flowed behind her as she walked and her black eyes looked anywhere but at the two sixth grade girls.
"Let's see if she's answer a few questions," Milly said to the camera before looking up at the older girl. "Sissi, how about a few words for our TV audience before the big night?"
"Sorry, munchkins, I only talk to real, pro reports," the principal's daughter said as she started to walk away. One of her followers, a nerd named Herb, covered the girls' camera so that no video of them was shot. "I have n time to waste on a couple of nerds."
"Huh, and yet she let's Nicholas and Herb follow her around like puppies," a voice said, making Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi laugh. Sissi turned and glared back into the gym, even though she couldn't see the source of the voice.
Milly watched Sissi turn and walk away. "But it's for the school news program. What about freedom of the press," she argued, distraught that she was being turned down for such ridiculous reasons.
"Oh, Milly, little dipsticks like you don't have any freedom. Understand?" Sissi asked, turning to look at the pigtailed girl. She put her hands on her hips.
A girl with similar looks to Sissi's came down from the ladder, except her hair was red - though it was more maroon tinted. She had big brown eyes and her hair wasn't styled nearly the same way as Sissi's. Her hair was free of any restraints, as opposed to Sissi's yellow headband. The girl with maroon hair had it done in curls all over the place and yet seemed to gravitate around her head, making it look wild.
She was clad in a denim skirt and black tights with a long sleeved maroon shirt under a grey tank top. The tank top hung loosely from her body and was only long enough to reach above her navel, which was covered by the maroon material that hugged her skin. The maroon shirk stopped just over the hem on her skirt. She had long legs and the skirt stopped short of her mid thigh, which was why she wore the black leggings, which were just dark enough that her pale skin looked darker on her legs.
"Sissi, stop that. We were their age once, remember," the brown eyed girl said, walking out the gym doors to look at her sister. She crossed her arms over her chest and lent against the door frame.
"Oh, please, Clem, it's not like they're real reporters," the twin with the hoop earrings said, rolling her eyes.
"Well they know a lot more than you do," the girl with the maroon hair said. She shook her head and walked over to her twin. "Besides, who are you to say that they won't become the best reporters there ever will be."
Sissi stared at her sister, then rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter. They'd need dates to go to the prom anyway. And i don't know anyone that would want to go with them. Not even Nicholas and Herb would want to go. I bet if she asked them they'rd run like rabbits."
Milly's emotions were getting the best of her and she looked at Sissi. "Who needs them? There's lots of other boys," she defended.
"Oh yeah?" Sissi taunted. She laughed. "What are you waiting for then. Try and find one."
"Stop it, Sissi," Clementine told her sister and started to scold her lowly so no one would hear.
Meanwhile, Milly focused her eyes on the boy holding the ladder in the gym. "Uh, Ulrich, would you- would you be my date tonight?" she asked, tears starting to stream down her cheeks as she was so upset.
Clementine turned her head to pay attention to the scene that was going down and walked over to the fellow red head. She put her hands on her shoulders and looked at Ulrich, who was blushing from embarrassment. She pressed her lips together.
"Uh," he fumbled a bit, "sorry, Milly. It wouldn't be such a good idea. I'm too old for you. And I already promised to go with Yumi."
"You see," Sissi said and laughed.
"That's enough, Elizabeth," Clementine said, raising her voice to her sister. Sissi looked at her shocked.
"Oh whatever, go ahead and feed lies into her head," Sissi said in a huff and turned, walking away with her two followers to go get more decoration supplies.
Milly looked down, then ran for the door. Tamiya ran after her.
Clementine turned her head and looked at Ulrich. "You could have said yes," she said to him.
"What did you want me to do?" he said. She folded her arms.
"I don't know, say yes," the maroon haired girl said. She crossed her arms. "Letting Sissi stomp all over Milly like that makes me feel-"
"Like you could've done more, we know," Odd said and walked over to his friends. He looked at Clementine. "But it's like this, you see. You're the good twin, the hero, the one everybody likes, whereas Sissi is the evil twin who's actually really ugly on the inside and does all the horrible stuff."
"Yeah, I know, but still. She shouldn't put Milly down like that," the brown eyed girl said before looking at Ulrich. "And you could've been a lot nicer to her."
Ulrich watched her silently as she walked past them to a box of streamers. He looked at Yumi and Odd, then looked down.
Clementine was walking to Milly and Tamiya's room when she heard Milly shouting. She stopped by the door and put her ear close so that she could hear better.
"They don't care about us or the newscast!" she heard Milly crying. "Oh, I hate them, all of them! I hate every single one of them! I hate everybody in the world!"
"You don't know what you're saying," her best friend tried to tell her. Tamiya was the more level headed of the two, and though she was upset about what Sissi had done and said to them and about them, she wasn't going to cry over it. "It's ju-"
"Oh, stop it! I'm sick of you too!" the young redhead shouted at her. The door opened and she ran out, right past Clementine.
Tamiya came out of the room and peeked out, watching her friend run off. "It's true. Ulrich could have been a little nicer."
Clementine nodded in agreement. "I'll go after her," she told the younger girl.
"She just needs time. Plus I think I know where she's running off to," Tamiya told her. She looked up at the older. "Go on back to the gym and help."
"Oh, I'll do more than that," she promised and turned on her heel, her laced up boots making a mark in the rug. She shoved her hands into the pockets on her skirt and sighed.
"Don't look so gloomy, Ulrich. Is it because of Milly?" Yumi asked from the stage that was set up in the gym. The boy she was talking to was taping down wires. "You could have said yes. You know me and prom."
"Even if I was your date?" Odd asked into the microphone he was supposed to be setting up, but instead he was playing with it.
"Plus, Clem would have understood," Yumi added, ignoring Odd.
Clementine walked into the gym and looked up at her sister, who was standing up on a ladder looking into a disco ball at her own reflection. "Sissi, come down here now. You need to apologize to Milly."
"I will not. I'm right, you know," the black haired twin said.
"Sissi did come on strong, though," Ulrich said, looking up at the twins. He couldn't help but think about how they were possibly twins, let alone sisters. "If meanness is one of the qualities of a beauty queen, then she'll get re-elected alright."
Jeremie Belpois walked over to them with a box and set it down. He didn't have to hear the whole conversation to know who they were talking about. "That's true," he agreed and turned to look at the beauty queen, "but try to get Ms. World to see that."
Odd put the microphone on the stand and laughed into it. "Ms. World? More like Ms. In Her Own World!" he exclaimed and laughed, causing his friends to laugh with him.
Clementine covered her mouth and laughed quietly as Sissi growled in anger at the top of the ladder.
Clementine had gone to her room to get ready for the prom. She was sitting at her sister's vanity mirror that she insisted they share since Clementine didn't want one of her own. She didn't see the point in having it there if they had the mirror in the girls' restroom, let alone having two.
She could believe her sister and what she had done. She honestly wasn't surprised by it at this point. She had lived with the girl all her live and so it only made sense that Sissi being mean was nothing new.
She heard talking outside, and it was the unmistakable voice of her sister. SHe rolled her eyes and got up from the seat so Sissi wouldn't say anything. She had honestly had enough of her sister. She walked over to her closet and opened it as the door to their shared room opened.
"Take this advice: don't think. It doesn't suit you," she heard Sissi said. The pink clad twin was pressed against the door and looking at it as if it was an idiot.
Clementine didn't say a word as she changed into her dress for the prom, which was just a simple black dress with little red swirls on the bottom of it. She had just finished putting her hair up before her sister walked in.
"A bunch of babies at the prom," Sissi muttered. This made Clementine roll her eyes.
"Will you get over it," she said, turning to her dark eyed sister. "You won already, so just give it up. You made the girl cry, isn't that enough for you?"
Sissi looked at her, in the process of changing. She looked unphased by her twin's words and continued to get ready for the prom. She turned on some music. "She had the nerve to ask Ulrich, and if anyone is going to go with Ulrich to the dance, it should be me."
"Okay, be that way, Elizabeth," Clementine said, using her sister's full name just to annoy her. She grabbed her shoes, black Mary Janes, and walked over to the door. "I hope you lose tonight." She then left the room in a huff.
She walked down the hall and was about to push open the door when she heard a scream, one that was certainly her sister's. She dropped her shoes and ran down the hall. "Sissi!"
She pushed open the door and looked at the mess that had been made, something that looked very perplexing, a little unusual. In the floor, Sissi lay startled. Clementine ran to her and grabbed her robe, covering up her twin protectively before anyone else could come to the door.
"It's okay, I've got you," she said to the shaken up girl.
Mr. Delmas, the twins' father, was consoling Sissi as he was walking her out of the dormitories. Clementine was behind them. As they walked out, they were met with a crowd, Milly and Tamiya in the front.
"Move along. Back to your dorms," Mr. Delmas said to the students that had gathered. "Everything is alright."
"Looks like we've got ourselves a super scoop," Milly said with her notepad in hand. As she said that, Tamiya snapped a picture.
Mr. Delmas and Sissi walked through the crowd as Clementine took the polaroid and looked at the girls. "Sorry girl, but I have to be a sister sometimes," she told them. She looked over and saw her friends standing behind a column.
She walked back inside and to her dorm, which was a mess. She looked in and then behind her as she heard the end hall door open. Her friends walked down the hall.
"So tell me, Jeremie, what does this look like to you? Was it XANA?" she asked, taking a peek back into the room.
Yumi got onto the other frame of the door to look in as well while Odd and Ulrich were standing by, keeping watch for anyone encase any questions came up. Jeremie stood between them all, in the middle of the door.
"A simple short circuit. Too many appliances plugged in at the same time," the blonde genius told them.
Clementine looked at him, tilting her head up unsure. She trusted Jeremie's opinion, of course, but something just didn't seem right. She had seen her sister use so many appliances at once. It didn't add up.
"Yeah, hi fi lights, lady shaver, curling iron. All plugged in at once, what do you expect to happen?" Yumi asked and turned, walking away.
Odd followed her, but Jeremie and Clementine stayed to look in a little longer. Ulrich looked at them from his spot on the wall.
"Something still doesn't look right, huh?" Clementine asked, looking at her glasses wearing friend. He hummed and then looked at her.
"Hard to say," he told her, then followed the other two down the hall. Clementine looked back in, then turned to follow, but stopped as she almost ran into Ulrich who was right behind her.
"You don't mind walking around in your dress before the dance?" he asked her.
"I don't really believe in dramatized entrances," she told him simply. Ever since she was young she had never wanted to be exactly like Sissi, and she never had been.
"Well," he said, blushing softly, "you look very nice."
She blushed a bit as well. "Oh, uh, thank you, Ulrich," she told him and then walked around him. He looked down and followed her.
Odd and Clementine were carrying the CDs from the DJ toward the gym when he nudged her. They both looked over and saw Tamiya consoling Milly, again sadly. They walked over and set down the music they had to choose from for the prom to see what was wrong.
"Hey, Milly, what's wrong?" Odd asked, looking at the two sat on the ground.
"Someone stole her teddy bear," the young dark skinned girl told, looking up at the two older kids.
"And I bet it was one of the big kids out of spite," the young redhead cried.
Tamiya was looking through the pictures she had taken earlier of Sissi and Clementine's room when she saw something. "Hey, Milly, you're right. Look at this," she said.
All of them looked over her shoulders to look at the picture of the room, and in it was Milly's teddy bear.
"And look, there's my teddy bear, hidden under her pillow," the girl in the pink sweater said, wiping her cheeks of her tears. SHe pointed at her teddybear. "Incredible."
Odd laughed. "Soon she'll be playing with dolls," he joked and looked at the girls.
"Come on, we gotta find her," Milly said, suddenly on a mission.
"I wouldn't do that," Clementine said and smoothed out her dress from bending over some. She looked at Odd. "Sissi's pretty shook up."
"And plus, if Jim catches us in the dorm, we're in big trouble, Milly," Tamiya pointed out.
"It is my dorm," the maroon haired girl said, looking at her also weirdly haired friend.
"Okay, you two go back to your room," Odd told them, taking the picture. He stood and looked at his pampered companion. "We'll handle this."
They grabbed their CDs and walked off, the picture in hand and the plan in mind.
Odd and Clementine had dropped off the CDs and then went to inspect the twins' dorm and get the bear back. However, when they got there, the teddy bear was gone. Odd was confused. He looked at the picture and then at the wall and room itself.
Clementine was standing to the side. "I thought it was weird that the bear was even in here in the first place," she explained. She crossed her arms. "Sissi hadn't come in with it."
"Not to mention the room is even more of a mess than when the picture was taken," the purple clad friend noted. And it was true. The pillow was ripped up along with Sissi's posters.
They went back to the gym to help finish the set up. They were staying within the limits of hearing each other and their other three friends.
"What happened to Sissi was weird, don't you think?" Jeremie asked, listening to the CDs to make sure that they weren't scratched or messed up.
"It was a short circuit, a simple short circuit," Ulrich said, pulling at the tape.
Clementine dumped some trash into the box Odd was holding. "But that's the thing, I don't think it was." He looked up at her. "I was there just a few seconds before it all happened, and I don't think Sissi alone could cause all that damage, not even scared."
"Anyway, let's play it real cool," Yumi said as she was going through the CDs. "Walls have ears, you know." She got up and stretched, sighing. "Well, I have to get going to get ready for the prom. Sometimes being a day student sucks."
"Don't complain," Ulrich said, looking at her. "No one wakes you up at six in the morning, you have hot water, and you don't have to sleep next to smelly Odd."
Once the three of the friends that were left in the gym, Ulrich, Jeremie, and Clementine, were done helping, which was around when the sun was starting to set, they had gone outside for some fresh air. That was when Odd approached them with a paper.
He had taken a trip to the nurse's office to see what had happened to their gym teacher, Jim, who was there in the infirmary. Word was that he had gotten attacked, but no one knew by who, or in this case what.
"XANA in a teddy bear?" Ulrich asked as he looked at the paper his friend and roommate had handed him. He looked at the drawing on it, that was drawn by Jim.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure," Odd told him, leaning his elbow on his taller roommate.
"He's always there when you least expect him," Jeremie said after thinking about it.
"Okay, guys, who goes and who stays?" the purple clad boy asked.
"I'll call Yumi," Clementine said as she pulled out her phone and started to dial.
"I still don't like the idea of being a person down. We don't know what you'll find out there," the genius explained to him, gesturing to what was to his side even though they all knew that was not what he really meant.
"I volunteer," Odd said, putting up a hand.
"What did I just say, huh?" Jeremie asked him, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
"You got any other ideas? There's already been two accidents, we can't leave the school unguarded. And even if we go back in time, if there's an accident it's all over," Odd argued, making Jeremie think about it.
Clementine walked back over and looked at the boys.
"Odd's right," Ulrich said, balling up the teddy bear drawing and looking up.
"For once," the maroon haired girl said, chuckling as Odd gave her a look.
"Did you get Yumi on the phone?" he asked her.
"No, she's not picking up," Clementine reported to them. She looked between the three of them.
"Clem and I will stay, you guys go," Ulrich said, tossing the balled up paper to the dolled up girl and put his hands on the guys' shoulders. "Say hi to You-know-who for us."
Jeremie smiled, thinking of their sixth friend and blushing. He hummed a bit in confirmation, though he wasn't happy that the two of them were going to stay behind. However, he knew that they had to work fast, so he and Odd were off.
Cementine threw the paper ball at Ulrich and laughed. "I was gonna go," she told him, her tone joking and playful.
Odd and Jeremie ran to another building of the school and made sure that they were alone before opening a door. The building was abandoned and barely used by the school anymore, which was a good thing since the door they opened was a tunnel that lead them straight to the sewers. Once there, they grabbed their means of transport, Odd a skateboard and Jeremie a scooter. They rode their way through the sewer until they made it to their stop.
They climbed out and onto the start of a bridge that led to an old, abandoned factory. They ran across the bridge and made it inside, where they grabbed ahold of some old yet sturdy ropes and jumped, sliding down to an elevator and got in. They then descended down.
Jeremie got off on one lever, one with a big computer and a holomap of some sort in the middle while Odd stayed in the elevator and continued to go down on more floor.
This room was so much bigger and it contained three cylinder tubes in it arranged so their fronts were facing the middle of the room. He exited the elevator and walked up to one.
Jeremie sat down at the computer and put on a headset. "Aelita!" he called into it. "Aelita!"
"Hello, Jeremie," a girl said as her image popped onto the screen. She smiled at him.
"Aelita, we think that XANA has launched an attack. Have you noticed anything?" he asked her.
The pink haired girl shook her head. "No, but we can take a closer look," she said to him. He nodded.
"I'm sending Odd. Ulrich and Clementine had to stay behind to watch over the school for any viruses," he explained to her. He called Ulrich to make sure everything was okay and the call was hooked up to where he could be on the phone with him and still talk to Aelita."How are things with you, Ulrich?"
"It looks like we have a problem," the brunette reported.
"A big one," Clementine said, her voice sounding farther away than Ulrich's, so Jeremie assumed he was the one actually holding the phone.
Odd stepped into one of the cylinders as he heard Jeremie's voice echoing through a sound system in the room. "Transfer Odd."
The doors closed and the purple clad boy closed his eyes.
"Scanner."
He felt himself moving and starting to float.
"Virtualization."
Odd landed in a crouch, but when he opened his eyes he was in a new place. The desert sector. And he wasn't in his normal clothes anymore. He was wearing a purple outfit with pink and yellow, complete with cat clawed gloves and a tail.
He looked around and saw a familiar figure waving to him. He smiled and ran over to her.
Ulrich and Clementine were standing at a wall, or at least what used to be a wall, that perimetered the school. They looked at each other, then Ulrich took out his phone.
"Jeremie, it's bad," he told his friend. He looked at Clementine. "The bear got out of the school."
Aelita heard this. "If it's under XANA's control, it'll get much worse," she said. "It'll go for anyone that's around, especially his mortal enemies, like you"
"Yumi," the maroon haired girl said with worry. She jumped over the tree that was laying in front of her and ran off of the school grounds.
Ulrich chased after her. As they ran down the road, Ulrich stayed on the phone with their resident genius, keeping a close eye on Clementine as she ran ahead of him. Nothing good could come from this and they all had to have each other's back.
As they ran through town, he tried to call Yumi himself, but there was no answer and it was all chopped up to how fast he and Clementine could run. After all, the bear wasn't going to stop, not for anyone or anything
Luckily, the two friends were able to run up the steps of the Ishiyama residence and ring the doorbell. After a few moments, Clementine took her turn to ring the doorbell herself, pressing the button three times.
The door finally opened and there was a sense of relief between the two. Yumi smiled, unaware of their waking fear.
"Hey guys, I didn't think you'd come all this way to pick me up," she said, but the two pushed past her and into the home. This didn't make her happy. "Hey, what are you doing?"
"Sorry," Ulrich said, turning to her.
"Are your parents home?" Clementine asked hurriedly.
"No, they went out," Yumi asked. It was at this time that Clem took notice of her dressed up appearance, which didn't stray too much away from her regular style.
"Okay, come on," Ulrich said and grabbed Yumi's hand. He dragged her outside, trying to get here away from her home. The principal's daughter was close to follow. "We can't stay here."
Yumi pulled away, looking at her friend weirdly. "Hey, would you mind explaining?"
There was a shake, like a small earthquake. It caused the Japanese teen to turn her head.
"No time to explain, let's go," Clementine said and lightly pushed her friend forward, prompting her and Ulrich to run ahead of her.
It was too late, though. The teddy bear was hot on their trail and had them in sight. The three were giving it their all to run as fast as they could away from the snuggly friend turned monster. Left behind them was a track of circle footprints in the ground and crushed cars.
"I hope Odd and Aelita are making it to the tower safely," Clementine said in between huffs.
"We should call," Ulrich said. Yumi grabbed their hands after they turned a corner and pulled them into a walkway. She pushed open the doors of a store and closed them.
They all sat and stayed quiet, waiting for the giant to pass them, hoping they were safe.
Clementine moved her hand back, feeling it land on someone else's. She looked up and followed the arm, though it wasn't hard to assume who it was. She pulled her hand away from Ulrich's, looking away as she mentally scolded herself for thinking so foolishly at a critical time.
Ulrich blushed and looked down, pulling out his phone and putting in one earphone into his ear. He called Jeremy and the call was picked up immediately. As he got to explaining the situation, the three of them started back on their feet.
The plan was to go to the school and evacuate so that no one was harmed. They just had to beat the bear there.
However, with their determination, they were able to make it. They stopped for a breather in the common area.
"Yumi, you clear the dorms, I'll take care of the gym," Ulrich said.
"I'll make a perimeter of the campus," Clementine said.
"No, come with me," Ulrich said, grabbing her hand in the process. Before she was able to object, he was pulling her along towards the gym while Yumi ran in the opposing direction.
Entering the gym was like walking into a Subdigitals concert. It was full of people talking and dancing, generally having a good time. The two who had just come in weren't in the party mood, however, and only cared about if all these people made it out of there with their lives.
They started looking for a way to get everyone's attention when Clementine grabbed Ulrich's arm. He looked at her.
"I say we get up on the stage and use the mic. It's our best bet now," she said. He firmly nodded and started walking again, only to bump into somebody. They both looked up, seeing Jim.
"Hey, Ulrich, you could have made a little effort," the gym teach said, looking down at the student who had been too busy to even think of dressing differently for the night. "I don't believe how sloppy you look, and walking around with Clementine on your arm when she's dressed to the T?" He wasn't questioning it, but simply trying to pose his point.
As a result of calling them out, the two teens looked at each other. Rosy blushes crossed both their cheeks, but it was hard to see in the yellow and pink altering lights. CLementine released Ulrich's arm and looked up at Jim, and he did, too, as the both of them were embarrassed now.
Jim continued, "I'll let it go this time, but try to chill out and have fun. You both look like you're expecting a disaster." He let them by and they continued on their way, only to be stopped by Clementine's twin.
Sissi reached out, stopping Ulrich with a single touch to the chest, catching him by surprise. Clementine wasn't surprised, since it seemed to be her sister's goal to make Ulrich fall madly in love with her. She bounced back quick for this single goal alone.
"Ulrich, what a surprise," she said casually, though she was being coy. "Hey, where did your date go?" She was drawing attention to the fact that Yumi was nowhere in sight, and seeing a moment of opportunity. "Next time, just call me."
"She's right here," Ulrich said with a straight face. He reached out and took Clementine's hand.
Sissi's eyes widened in shock. "What?" she all but yelled.
Ulrich's cheeks yet again blush, though this had been the plan the entire time. Yumi agreed to be Ulrich's date for two reasons. One being that Sissi wouldn't pester him about being her date and two being that Ulrich and Clementine could go to the prom together, just secretly. It wasn't a good plan, but it was a plan. It also kept Sissi none the wiser.
The a voice broke through the music and it was the twins' father, Principal Delmas, announcing that it was time to announce this year's beauty queen. Sissi was clearly upset over the fact that her crush wanted to be at the dance with her sister, but the competition was another thing she cared about, as it gave her competition, confidence, and more boost of power over the students there.
She walked away, saying something along the lines of triumph and success. Her two followers, Nicolas and Herb started to laugh.
Clementine turned her head, glaring at them. She had better, more important, things to do than to stand around listening to them and her sister boast over nothing. "What are you two bozos laughing at?"
They quickly shut up.
She gripped Ulrich's hand and started pulling him along, taking the lead. "Come on, let's get to that stage." She was clearly aggravated, but it was no one's fault really. She was tasked with saving these people and they didn't know that.
She pushed their way through the crowd to get to the front. She could see her father up there, going on about grace and charm, though she wasn't listening to him. She was trying to think of what to say to the people. Presentation was everything and in the case of the matter, time was too.
She stopped as her father paused. She looked up at him, then looked over to the stairs that led up to the stage. She let go of Ulrich's hand and cut around to it. She walked up just as her father was introducing the girls that ran for the spot of beauty queen.
She marched up to her father and swiped the mic from him. He protested, but she stopped him. "Listen up, everybody, I have something very important to say."
She still hadn't picked the right words to say, but she knew time was dwindling down for them all and she had to get these people out of here. She was beginning to question whether this was the best idea, since she was now believing that it would have been easier to sound an emergency alarm.
"We have to evacuate the gym immediately. A grave danger is coming here and it won't be stopped, people are going to get hurt," she said into the mic. Her sister walked over and tried to take it from her.
"Stop this, Clem, you're embarrassing me and yourself," she said, struggling with her sister for the mic.
"No, you have to listen," she said in a huff. She snatched the device from her sister's grip. She looked at the crowd, who all looked confused. "What are you standing here for? Go, get out of here."
"What's coming for us?" someone called from the crowd.
Clementine closed her eyes and growled into the mic "A giant teddy bear."
Everyone began to laugh and this only added onto the weight on the maroon haired girl's shoulders. No one could appreciate what she did for all of them because they couldn't know. No one could know.
"I saw it too. I knew it! I saw the giant teddy bear too!" Jim yelled out, pointing to Clementine.
"Oh, come on, stop this!" Sissi said and looked at her sister. She was angry, for more than one reason. "It's all a trick, can't you see? You're trying to keep me from winning because you're jealous of me. I always knew you were jealous of me."
Clementine turned to her sister. She took in a deep breath. "You think I'd come up here and make myself look like an idiotic fool in front of the entire school for some trick on you?" she yelled with all her breath, accidentally doing so into the microphone. It was loud and made students and teachers alike cover their ears. "You think I'd do this to you, my sister, if this wasn't important!"
"You're talking about a teddy bear," Sissi said. She scoffed. "Why not King Kong while you're at it?"
Another small earthquake shook the entire gym, followed by a crash. The teddy bear tore down the entire wall behind the twins and it made them turn to it. Sissi screamed while Clementine dropped the mic. Everyone else began to run to the exit.
The giant stuffed animal controlled by XANA crawled into the small hole it had made and onto the stage. This made Clementine step backwards as she stared up at it. Her sister and father, on the other hand, turned and ran off the stage.
Clementine soon didn't have anymore stage to walk back on and she fell backwards onto the floor of the gym. She huffed, holding her arm that she had ultimately landed on.
"Clementine!" Urich shouted, running to her from the side where he stood. He grabbed her arm, pulling her up. A giant teddy bear arm came down and tried to smash them under it, but he pulled them out of the way, causing them to fall onto the floor together. Windows broke and glass flew across the room.
The teddy was relentless, though, and brought its arm up to strike again. It's arm was coming down as Clementine was pushing herself up. She looked up and gasped. She hid her face into Ulrich's shirt as the arm got closer, and she dared not look up.
However, when nothing happened, she did. The bear was frozen in its place, as if time had stopped. She looked at Ulrich, and the two came to realize that he was holding her close to him. They both blushed and looked away. It didn't have to be said; they were both glad that the other was okay.
And they knew what was coming next.
"Ready for a trip to the past, Clementine?" Ulrich asked. She looked up at him and smiled just before a white light engulfed them.
It was back to the news reporters, Milly and Tamiya, covering the story of the school prom. However, it was just after Sissi's teasing of Milly and the young redhead was crying while Sissi and her cronies stood by. Clem stood behind Milly, consoling her by rubbing her back soothingly, though it did little to comfort her.
She turned to the gym, looking inside as a tear shed down her blushing cheeks. "Ulrich, would you be my date?" she asked.
Ulrich looked at her and smiled a bit. He walked out to her and crouched down to her level. He took a quick glance up at Clem and smiled to Milly. "I would be glad to," he told her.
Milly let out a smile. "Really?"
"Sure," he said and turned to his friend, who had not followed him out. "You're not too mad at me, are you, Yumi?" he asked her.
"Not at all," Yumi said. Beside her, Clementine winked and chuckled a bit. "Besides, my secret admirer will take me, tonight, won't you Odd?" The blonde smiled her way.
"What?" Sissi screeched from down the hall. It wasn't exactly the same exclamation she had made from before, but then again, it wasn't the same realization. She was fuming at this display, that she had been shown up by a younger student, someone she saw as a kid. She was speechless. "You're gonna go with that silly baby?"
"That's right, I sure am," Ulrich answered her. "But don't worry, when your brain gets another neuron or two, I'll go out with you too."
This made Sissy fume even more, holding in her frustration. What was even more infuriating was to realize that Tamiya was recording the entire thing. Just desserts for the beauty queen, as it would come to show.
