"Return to the past, now!"
The gang teleports to just a few hours prior, another successful end to XANA's attacks in the world of Lyoko. They are gathered outside in the velvety green grass of Kadic Academy's campus, beneath the cool shade of a towering Oak tree on this warm day. Yumi and Ulrich are seated on a bench side by side, enjoying each other's company along with the breeze from the tree's leaves. Aelita is sitting on the grass, leaning against the rigid tree trunk, her nose in a book. Jeremie sits against the tree as well, but strangely, on the opposite side of Aelita. Odd is the only one who is not relaxed. In fact, he can hardly keep still.
"Wasn't that so much fun? I swear I could never get tired of this!" Odd exclaimed, prancing around and mocking his moves performed back in the virtual world.
"Odd, I don't think you should joke around like that and consider nearly dying every other day 'fun.'" Ulrich scoffed. Odd stopped in his tracks and shot Ulrich a look of disappointment.
"Oh come on, Ulrich. If you haven't nearly died then you haven't lived!"
"Um, yeah, I think that's the point." Odd continued to prance around as if he were still in his Lyoko attire, shooting arrows out of his imaginary oversized paws. Ulrich rose up off of the bench, and turned towards Jeremie. "Hey Jeremie, what's up?" he inquired. Jeremie sat solemnly by himself, not muttering a word to any of his friends, not even Aelita.
"XANA's attacks get stronger with each activated tower," Jeremie fearfully sighed. "We cannot keep going on like this, risking not only our own lives but especially Aelita's. I stay up until two in the morning every night straining my cerebral cortex until it practically explodes trying to find the cure, the answer to creating Aelita's anti-virus… but I never get any closer. While I'm getting weaker, XANA is getting stronger. I worry we are running out of time." Jeremie exhaled deeply, and buried his head in his knees. Ulrich pitied Jeremie and the stress he was under, but he didn't know what to do, say, or even think. Aelita rose.
"Jeremie, is this anti-virus really that important? I think we need to weigh out the pros and cons here, Jeremie. Perhaps it would be better if we just… shut off the computer." The group gasped at her outrageous suggestion. Of course the Lyoko warriors wouldn't let their entire motivation for defeating XANA slip away that easily!
"Aelita, you'll die!" screamed Ulrich.
"But maybe it's best. The con is losing one of us, but the pro is keeping four of us. Maybe I should just be virtualized back into Lyoko, and then you can shut down XANA for good… Jeremie, I can't stand to see you tear apart your body like this from sleep deprivation and stress."
"No." Jeremie snapped. "I will never do that. Absolutely not, I can't believe you even suggested that Aelita! Can't you just appreciate what I'm trying to do for you, instead of trying to have me pity you and essentially murder you?" Aelita was taken aback by Jeremie's harsh words. "Oh Gosh Aelita I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped, I'm sorry…"
"This is exactly what I'm talking about." Aelita scoffed and stormed away to the girl's dormitory.
"Aelita, please wait!" Jeremie started after her, but Yumi quickly jumped up and yanked on his skinny little arm.
"I'll follow her," she offered. "I think it's time for a little one-on-one girl talk. A little bit of chocolate, some ice cream, I'll go rent The Vow, everything will be okay. Don't get yourself more worked up than you already are, Jeremie. The girl can't stay mad at you for very long, even if she tries her hardest." Yumi waved goodbye, winked at Ulrich, and then trotted away to find Aelita.
"Hey don't be rude, Ulrich! Say good-bye to your girlfriend!" Odd sarcastically exclaimed.
"Oh, shut up, Odd. She's not my girlfriend…"
"Oh yeah well then what is she? I saw that wink!"
"She's just my friend! Don't you have something better to do Odd, like, not be around me?" Ulrich walked away. Not wanting to sit around with just Odd by his side, Jeremie stood up as well and started to walk away.
"Hey now where are you going?" Odd cried out.
"I'm going to work on the anti-virus some more. I can't give up." Jeremie disappeared from Odd's sight, and Odd collapsed onto the grass. Having nothing better to do now that all of his friends had other plans, he stared at a squirrel running up the tree.
Back in Aelita's dorm…
Aelita curled up in her blankets, listening to the sound of her television but not paying any attention to what was on screen. She sluggishly rolled over and grabbed one of her teddy bears.
"Oh Mr. Fluffles," she whispered. "I'm confused. I want to be angry at Jeremie, but I find it physically impossible to do so. Do you know why that is, Mr. Fluffles?" The bear stared back at her lifelessly. Obviously. It's a stuffed animal. Suddenly, Aelita heard a knock on her door.
"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
"Just your friendly Asian pal, Yumi. Can I come in?"
"Uh, uh…" Aelita scrambled to put away her bear and straighten things up. She didn't want Yumi knowing she was just lying in her bed asking a stuffed ani mal for advice. "Yeah, that's fine, come on in." Yumi opened the door and walked in, her arms full of DVDs, pints of ice cream, and chocolate bars.
"Hi," Yumi smiled.
"What's all this for?"
"I know you're upset from earlier, so I figured I would try and cheer you up."
"Why is a bunch of chocolate going to cheer me up?"
"Aw, you're still so innocent and unaware of your own gender. Just trust me…here, I brought a movie too." Yumi walked over to the television and popped in the DVD. She then walked over to Aelita's bed and sat by her side, offering her a pint of cookies and cream ice cream along with a spoon.
"Thank you," Aelita muttered. She opened the container and hesitantly dug the spoon into the creamy blend of Oreo cookies and vanilla ice cream. "Wow, this is good."
"I know." Yumi opened her own container of ice cream and began to munch along with Aelita. "So, Aelita, can I ask exactly why you suggested we give up and shut down the computer?" Aelita sulked.
"I don't know," she replied. "I just wasn't thinking straight, which is hard to do when I'm around Jeremie for some reason. I hate seeing him suffer, he's always showing up late to class and he never gets enough sleep, so I just wanted to hurry up and find an easy way out for his sake."
"You must really care about him, Aelita."
"Of course, I mean he is one of my best friends. But I mean… I feel differently towards him than I do my other friends. Not the same way I feel about you, Odd, or Ulrich. I'm not sure why."
"Hmm, like… how?"
"Well… I feel really happy whenever he's around, and I get this weird feeling in my stomach. It kinda feels like there's a bunch of butterflies fluttering around in my tummy!"
"Yeah that's why they call it butterflies…. I think someone named Aelita is in love with someone named Jeremie…" Yumi teased, but then her face turned serious. Uh oh, she immediately though. I shouldn't have said that. Now she is going to go beg someone to tell her what it means, and then Jeremie will find out indirectly, and it will just be a big mess in general if other people get involved…
"I'm in what?" Aelita didn't know what the word "love" meant. Although she had been devirtualized for quite some time, there were some very common things that she still didn't understand.
"Nothing, it's not a big deal or anything." Yumi quickly tried to erase her words. She wanted to let Aelita and Jeremie find each other on their own, not with the interference of everyone else, or Aelita's overly inquisitive mind.
"But Yumi, you sure said it like it was a big deal!"
"Just shut up and eat your ice cream." Aelita silently obeyed. I'll find out one way or another… she thought to herself. If it's not a big deal like Yumi says, it shouldn't be a big deal for me to ask someone else! Aelita was a very curious individual, and couldn't wait to find out what this expression to "love" meant.
"Oh by the way, um…don't bring this up to anyone. Yeah, it's an unofficial female rule. What happens in your dorm stays in your dorm. Just go find a dictionary." Yumi demanded.
In Jeremie's dorm…
It was another late night for Jeremie. He incessantly tapped on his computer; calculate, analyze, scan, repeat. Yet he still seemed to be getting nowhere closer to conducting Aelita's anti-virus. Every time he booted it up, his computer crashed and erased everything.
"I can do this…" he muttered through his gritted teeth. Beads of sweat dripped from his temples, gliding across his cheeks and dripping off of his nose. He spat as the salty taste met his lips. "I'm so close, I can feel it! I'll try this, it has to work, I'm SURE of it!" Jeremie impatiently rummaged through the oodles of text books and documents spread across his desk and floor. His floor wasn't much carpet anymore, and may as well have turned into one big textbook itself. "Here!" Jeremie screamed. He picked up a folder that had AELITA ANTI-VIRUS TRIAL #32 written on it. It was the closest he had come so far, but it was numerous trials ago and he had only gotten farther since then. "If I combine the success from this trial with the success from my current trial I bet both of them combined will finally work. Right now is the closest I've gotten since my 32nd try." He ran back to his desk and input the information, tap tap tapping away. Jeremie's fingers cramped, and he had begun to show signs of carpal tunnel, but that wouldn't stop him. Nothing would stop him… until he heard a sweet, familiar voice at his door.
"Jeremie?" Aelita stood outside of his dormitory, whispering, as it was past hours and she wasn't supposed to be in the boy's dorm to begin with. "Are you in there?"
"What is she doing here?" Jeremie silently said under his breath. He glanced at the clock by his bed, 12:03 A.M.
"…Jeremie?" Aelita pressed her ear against his door. "I guess he went to be-AHH!" Jeremie opened his door without realizing Aelita was leaning against it, causing her to tumble onto the floor and on top of him. They both blushed and Aelita became too flustered to speak. She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
"H… hi…" Jeremie stuttered. Aelita rolled over and shot up from the floor, straightening out her dress and fixing her hair. Jeremie did the same, nervously brushing himself off as if were a germaphobe who had just used a public restroom. He then regained his composure, and cleared his throat. "Aelita," he started. "I need to apologize for earlier. I shouldn't have snapped at you, I'm really sorry."
"It's okay Jeremie. It's my fault for suggesting something so stupid. Anyways, I didn't come here to dig an apology out of you and make you pity yourself."
"Okay. Well, why ARE you here then?"
"I just had a question to ask you," Aelita giggled at the thought of what she was about to say to Jeremie. She didn't know why, but for some reason, she was nervous.
"That's why you're here? To ask me a question? At quarter past midnight? It couldn't wait until tomorrow? You know, normal waking hours?"
"Well, I suppose it could have, since Yumi said it's not a big deal..." Oh great, Jeremie thought. Yumi's involved. I wonder what kind of crap she loaded into Aelita earlier. "Anyways, I couldn't sleep 'cause I kept thinking about it. You're always up late anyway. Hey, whatcha doin?" Aelita walked over to Jeremie's computer desk.
"Aelita, please don't mess with anything, I'm so close…" Aelita sighed.
"Yeah yeah, anti-virus, I know." Aelita walked over to Jeremie. "Jeremie…."
"Yes, Aelita?"
"Well, earlier, when I was with Yumi, she said something to me about you, but then quickly tried to pretend like nothing happened and said it didn't matter."
"Uh huh…"
"Well, she told me this word that I didn't quite recognize: love." Jeremie froze as soon as he heard Aelita speak that term. Somehow, it sounded nice hearing her soothing voice utter the word "love." Nonetheless, Jeremie didn't like where this was going. "I don't know what love means, Jeremie, but I would like to. Yumi wouldn't tell me. I don't know why. I looked it up in a dictionary, but I kind of want an easier explanation, you know? Especially since it was one of your dictionaries I was looking at."
"Well, Aelita, hey! How did you get into my dictionary collection?" Aelita snickered and winked.
"Jeremie, what is love?"
"Um, I think there's a Haddaway song that could answer your questions for you."
"Oh, Jeremie… please, will you tell me what love is?" Aelita pleaded, looking upon Jeremie and batting her innocent, radiating eyes. Jeremie couldn't resist. He sighed.
"Well, Aelita… love is… love is…" Jeremie paused. How was he supposed to explain something even he didn't know about? "Love is defined as a profoundly tender, passionate affection for someone. It's an emotion, an emotion that majority of people really want to experience. Some take it too far, and become in love with the idea of falling in love. You'll notice that among most of the girls here at Kadic. Um, love… love is also very challenging and hurtful. It might seem like a lot of fun, but, true love develops from the hardships. It's the couples who sometimes can't stand to look each other, but keep on going and growing stronger each day, that are really in love. Not what you see in movies, like a movie you probably watched with Yumi earlier." Jeremie looked at Aelita to see if she was following what he was saying. She seemed enthralled with his words, and sat cross legged on his bed gazing up at him. Her glance alone told Jeremie she wanted more.
"Please keep going Jeremie. I want to hear more." Aelita smiled. Her smile was so beautiful. Warmth filled Jeremie's heart whenever she saw Aelita's dazzling grin, how could he possibly say no to her?
"In those movies, that kind of love just magically falls into place without any work, but that doesn't happen in real life. It takes a lot of hard work, but in the end it's worth it. It's a never ending journey too. You don't just fall out of love just like that. There's a difference between love and in love, too. Like, I love Odd. When I don't hate him, that is. He's my friend, and he's cool, but I don't want to marry him or anything, you know? You love your family members and your friends, but its boyfriends and girlfriends where you would use the term in love. Make sense?" Aelita nodded. Jeremie began to get lost in his words, pacing around his disaster of a bedroom floor, teaching like he knew exactly what he was talking about. "Being in love is a really powerful emotion. Being in love means you would do absolutely anything for that person, just to see them smile. They are more important than anything else in the entire world. Being in love means that whenever they need you, you'll drop everything to rush to their side. It means feeling bliss and happiness when they're happy, and feeling sad when they're sad too. It means… thinking about her every second of every day…" Jeremie stopped in his tracks, his back turned to Aelita. "It means doing everything you can to keep her alive... It means staying up past two in the morning every night when you have school the following day, to try and find the anti-virus that will keep her safe and here on Earth." Jeremie was afraid to turn around to Aelita. Aelita remained seated, overwhelmed with a powerful happiness and a funny feeling in her stomach. She felt nervous, and excited at the same time.
"So, that's what love is?" she asked. Jeremie slowly turned around to Aelita. They stared at each other for a long moment, with blank expressions at first. No words were spoken. Jeremie looked Aelita up and down, from head to toe. Oh how beautiful she was. Her skin was so fair, practically glowing. Her hair was so beautiful and looked so soft, the color of it absolutely ravishing. The corners of her cute little mouth spread into her beautiful wide smile, making her seem even more gorgeous. A small smile made its way onto Jeremie's nerve-wrecked face.
"Yeah," said Jeremie. "That's what love is."