I was originally going to do a romance between Odd and an OC, where Odd finds out he's failing and he has to get a tutor, but this was a lot more fun instead.

The day had come. It was the apocalypse. Doomsday. The day that Odd had dreaded since the moment term had started.

Report cards.

Odd sat numbly on a bench, gripping his grade report tightly. His heart fell at every letter lower than a B, and a scrawled comment from Principal Delmas glared at him from the bottom. Does not try hard enough in class! He heard the others coming and quickly shoved the paper into his bag.

"Hey, Odd. Did you get your report card?" Jeremy chirped.

"Yeah. Let me guess, you got all A's?"

He smiled sheepishly. Yeah. So did Aelita."

"Huh. That was expected. What about you, Yumi?"

"One B," she admitted.

"Ulrich?" Odd said desperately, hoping to at least sympathize with his roommate.

"Two C's, one B, the rest A's," he replied smoothly. "What about you, Odd?"

"It's not important," he mumbled, feeling awkward.

"You can tell us," Ulrich assured him, looking a little hurt. He sighed, knowing that they would get it out of him eventually, and spilled. "I failed." Ulrich and Yumi merely nodded, while Jeremie's eyes immediately softened in sympathy.

"Oh, that's rough, Odd. Do you want me to look at it and see if I can find you any more points? Or I could talk to Mrs. Hertz and see if there's an extra credit test. I'd help you study if you want-"

"I'm fine," Odd cut him off, failing to keep the snarl out of his voice. Yumi threw him a glance that was like, What was that? Jeremie cringed, and Odd instantly felt guilty. Lowering his voice, he lied: "I don't want to make you go through all that trouble." Jeremie relaxed a bit.

"Are you sure? It wouldn't be any trouble at all. If you want, I could even loan you my flash cards, and we could skip gym and study in the library, and-"

Once again, Odd snapped. "SHUT UP!" he burst. "I don't want your pity, I don't want your help, and I don't want you!" Jeremie just stood there for a moment, apparently in shock. Then he silently swung his bag over his shoulder, turned on his heel, and walked away. Odd watched him go, but not as happily as he expected. He already felt guilty. However, before he could say anything else, let alone stop glaring after Jeremie, , the other two had already swept in.

"Why did you do that?" Ulrich asked, crossing his arms protectively.

Odd squirmed uncomfortably. "I didn't-"

"Hey, you guys!" a cheerful voice called to them. Odd looked past Ulrich's shoulder and saw it was Aelita, jogging towards them.

"Oh, hey, Aelita. Where were you earlier?" Yumi asked.

"I stayed behind to ask Mrs. Feymon something. But I passed by Jeremie in the corridor, and he didn't even say hello to me."

"Where's Jeremie now?" Odd asked anxiously.

"Class," Aelita replied simply.

Odd looked at his feet guiltily. "So are you guys mad at me?"

"No, just…confused," Ulrich locked eyes with Odd. "Aelita, don't miss class," he said, not breaking the eye contact.

"Okay. See you later, then." With that she headed past them to her next class.

"Hey, I should probably get going too. I'll see you guys at lunch." Yumi bade them goodbye before heading in the opposite direction.

Ulrich looked at Odd expectantly.

"I don't know why I yelled," Odd lied, not wanting Ulrich to know about his dumbness, though he knew it was coming regardless.

"I do," Ulrich said, and Odd looked at him, confused. Ulrich nodded at his quizzical expression. "Jeremie makes you feel stupid sometimes, doesn't he?" Odd gaped.

"How did you-?"

"Cause he does that to me, too," Ulrich shrugged. "Whenever I get a bad grade, Jeremie has to feel all bad for me and tries to help me get a better one. He seems to think I can't do it on my own." At Odd's lost expression he continued, "You know how Jeremie sulks if he gets an B, and we cheer at it? Well, to Jeremie, a B is an F. Anything less than that is incomprehensible. He just doesn't get it. So when he hears that, it's like telling him Einstein was a fraud or something. Look, studying is all Jeremie does. To him, offering to loan you his notes is like offering to program you a new weapon on Lyoko. He's just different from us."

The late bell rang, and the boys ran to class, Odd feeling worse than ever. It didn't help when Jeremie wouldn't meet his eyes. He plopped down next to him at the table, wincing at his cringe. Ulrich met his eyes, and mouthed, Go on, do it! Luckily, Mr. Donaghy had not yet arrived, so there was still time.

"Hey," he said awkwardly.

"Hey," Jeremie echoed, twirling his pen in his fingers. He still wouldn't meet his eyes.

"I'm sorry," they said in unison. "What? I said I'm sorry," they continued at the same time.

"Wait, why are you sorry?" Odd asked. Jeremie shrugged.

"Cause I hurt your feelings."

"Oh," Odd mumbled, feeling horribly uncomfortable. He cast a pleading glance at Ulrich but he was already playing hangman with Herve on a corner his paper. Odd chewed his thumbnail. "You didn't try to…"

Jeremie fumbled with his pen. "But I did," he said. "And now you hate me."

"Jeremie, I don't hate you. You were just being an awesome friend, and I was being an idiot," he refrained from adding, "Like usual."

"Odd, you're not an idiot, you're just smarter at other things," Jeremie told him. Odd shook his head, opened his mouth to say that she was wrong, but Jeremie stopped him. "If you were an idiot, you wouldn't have figured out how to successfully attach rockets to your skateboard, figure out how to use a bra as a slingshot, or turn a pen into a spitball shooter." Jeremie smiled at the last one. "Actually, the Spitball Shooter 5000 took genius."

"But I got in trouble for all that stuff," Odd said.

"So? You were just as inventive as Thomas Edison himself."

"So... are we okay now?" Odd asked tentatively.

Jeremie shrugged. "I suppose so."

"Yeah, buddy!" Odd said, tackling his friend with an Odd-style bear hug.