Don't own Code Lyoko.
For anyone who follows me in another fandom, please don't kill me. OTL
This takes place after the end of the series, which I put a little bit before half-way through Odd's freshman year.
Confident in my Confidant
"So, Mr. Della Robbia, can you tell us why you want to be a student counselor? You are, after all, only a sophomore at the moment."
Odd shuffled his feet nervously but stared the head counselor straight in the eye. If he appeared to have a motive behind this, he knew they wouldn't hesitate to reject him. "My friends are great, and studies are a little difficult, but I actually want to help people, sir. Already, there are people who trust me to keep their secrets, and I want to be there for others as well."
All of what he said was entirely true, but they were only the outer reasons. Truthfully, Odd had begun to feel like a third (or, in this case, fifth) wheel to his friends. Jeremie had Aelita, and Ulrich had Yumi, leaving Odd staring at their backs as they all walked into the sunset like the happy little couples they were.
Only a year had passed since they defeated Xana, and yet so much had changed. Ulrich and Yumi finally pulled together their courage and are now happily going out, and Jeremie and Aelita were without a doubt completely smitten with one another.
That left Odd. Still the undeniably shortest of them all, the biggest change in him occurred deep within his psyche. Half-way through their freshman year, Ulrich had moved in with Jeremie, complaining that Odd was too noisy for him to be able to study. Principal Delmas was very understanding and agreed to it, which left Odd without a roommate. And, in Odd's mind, without a confidant.
The changes started small enough that no one was able to notice. Odd began to study, his grades grudgingly improving to where his steady seventy-five became an eighty-three, which, should his friends have noticed, was shocking for the dreamy blonde. Then, in the summer between freshmen and sophomore year, Odd had broken his right arm, leaving him unwillingly becoming ambidextrous (the idea of sisters even so much as offering to help their injured brother had sent him into a fit of hysterics when he was coming off the medication at the hospital).
Then there were the Lyoko-related changes. After Xana and Lyoko were shut down, Odd was unfortunately left without any type of way to left off steam. Since Jeremie never had this problem, and Ulrich and Yumi made little sparring "dates", the blonde was left to fend for himself on ways to relieve stress. So he looked for inspiration in what he thought was the best possible place: the urban jungle of Paris while on a field trip.
During this little excursion, something had caught the then-freshman's eyes, and he got separated from the group to chase after some teens doing incredible acrobats above the crowds on the rooftops. It took a while, but he managed to corner the older teens and asked them what they had been doing.
The seeming leader of the group let out a chortle, and asked, "What, you've never heard of parkour?"
Once they explained the concept to Odd, and did a few moves as examples, it didn't take long for the feline-like blonde to fall into desperately hopeless love with the art. He begged them to teach him, right then and there, the main techniques and concepts, and taught himself the more advanced stuff in his lonely single room, with only his dog checking in on him and comforting him when he fell.
The last, and perhaps largest invisible change in Odd, was how he felt about the younger students. He went from teasing them, to tolerating them, until one day.
As he was walking down a hallway on one day, he passed by a closet when a sound caught his attention. He pressed his face closer to the door, and then his expression dropped as he recognized the sound. Someone was sobbing on the other side of the door.
The freshman had been torn at the time; should he ask what's wrong or leave the younger student to calm down on their own? The blonde cringed a little as he made his decision, but knocked gently on the door. "Hey, are you okay in there? Who is this?"
The sobbing stopped immediately, and the person on the other side knocked back before speaking, her voice still shaking. "My name is Emily. Can you let me out? Some mean older kids pushed me in here and it's too small and I can't breathe well in here."
Oh my God. Odd thought, paling a little as recognition set in. Some asshole high schooler locked a claustrophobic girl in a closet. He immediately turned the knob which, being lockable from the outside, opened the door without a problem. He was then tackled by the young girl on the other side, who hugged him without any hesitation. Her rapid and sniffling "thank you"s continued until they dissolved into relieved sobbing, her face pressed against his hoodie for comfort.
Odd hugged her back, and then looked around. There would be a lot of awkward explanations if he was caught like this, and the girl should probably go to the infirmary, so there not much else he could do. Shifting her gently, he whispered calming words to her before slowly picking her up bridal style.
The girl tensed, then calmed down a little and continued pressing her face to his hoodie. The trip to the nurse's office didn't take long at all, and soon Odd was laying the now sleeping girl gently on a bed while explaining to the nurse what happened. The woman, kind and used to seeing Odd due to his way of annoying people who liked to berate him physically, nodded grimly before sending the student a small smile.
"Thank you for helping her, Odd. And can I make a request?"
"What is it, Nurse Mollis?" The question was more a formality; they both knew that the blonde would do as she asked. The nurse was almost like a mother to him, especially since his real mother was too busy caring for his five sisters to be a mother for him.
"Make sure the person who did this knows just how unamused you are, would you?" The kind look that usually adorned the woman's face was gone, and the smile that had once been there changed into a sharp smirk. One of the things she liked about the mischievous student was his backbone against the crueler students. It made her laugh as she helped bullies get their hands free from being glued to their hair.
The blonde paused, then grinned wickedly. "You got it, Nurse M." He then walked out of the room and after stepping far enough away, changed it to a prowl-like stalk. The person who did this will learn why you never play on someone's fears around him.
During lunch the next day, when Odd was sure that both the perpetrator and Emily were in the room, the fun began. He stood up, saying he was getting more food, and turned to rush to the line. There, right in front of the entire room, he "accidentally" bumped into an eleventh grade girl who had a cap hiding her face and hair.
The collision forced him to fall back, but the girl remained standing, with one key difference. Her hat had fallen off. The room took one look at the girl when the snickering began.
Her short cut hair was dyed yellow and neon green in some parts, but the real amusement came from her face. Carefully drawn onto her face was a villain-esque goatee and curly mustache. Those close enough to clearly see her face noticed that her eyelids had also been marked, another pair of eyes appearing whenever she closed her real ones.
The pranked girl, Mia, was one of the top people in the high school food chain, and she readily abused that power whenever she had the chance. The only reason no one was outright laughing was because they knew she could ruin their reputation as quickly as she could lift a pencil.
Odd, after standing up and getting her hat (and discreetly taking photos with a camera in his other hand that was carefully placed in his pants pocket), gave her the head ware and smiled apologetically. "Sorry about that; and I completely sympathize with you wearing your hat. I hate bad hair days as much as the next person." He finished with a smile and ran to the lunch line, ignoring the baffled looks half of the cafeteria was shooting him.
The girl quickly walked to her seat and, after shooting a number of people glares, the room slowly returned to its noisy self. No one noticed that, as Odd walked back to his seat with more food, he winked playfully at a quiet junior high student, who giggled and smiled back while mouthing, "thank you" to him softly.
Though it had been near the end of the year, that day created a vigilante out of Odd. He never retaliated if the prank was harmless (by his standards) or accepted by the younger student, but if it was meant to cruelly use a fear or phobia against them, the blonde would lash out, and prank the older student back in an embarrassing way. The only people who knew of this were the previously pranked younger students, and the nurse, who he would show the pictures he got from each prank to.
Odd returned from his thoughts to see the counselor nodding thoughtfully to himself. "That all sounds promising, but I need to ask you one more question Odd. While I trust that you'll keep any secret the students tell you to yourself, is there something we can use as a way to negate anything you admit to your friends by accident? Leverage, if you will?"
The blonde nodded and gave the man a bitter grin. "Look at me, sir. I'm just a goofball blonde that pranks people and sleeps through class and screws around. This reputation is so strong that, even if I were to shout someone's most embarrassing secrets to everyone in the cafeteria, no one would believe me. They'll just think it's one of my terrible jokes or something."
The counselor smiled then, and offered his hand. "Then I think you just got yourself an on-campus position, Mr. Della Robbia."
Odd smiled back and shook his hand. "Thanks, Counselor Valerian. I have a question really quick; unless the student needs to be seen by a professional counselor, I'm allowed to keep their identities and profiles confidential, correct? I don't want to show you their information if they don't want me to."
The man's smile didn't waver; in fact, he seemed quite pleased that Odd asked that question. "That is correct."
The blonde's smile grew into a grin. "Awesome! Well, I'm going to head back to my room. I'll see you later, Counselor Valerian."
The man raised his hand in farewell and chuckled. "Good-bye, my boy! Good luck with your classes!"
Odd had only taken a few steps from the office when a smaller body collided with his. His refined reflexes let him catch the other, and he looked down to lock his gaze with blue eyes before smiling gently at the other. "Hey, Emily."
"Hey, Odd. Did you get approved to be a student counselor?" The seventh grader hopped excitedly by her brother figure, and followed him to his new room in the co-ed dorms, which were used for teachers and special circumstances.
The sophomore grinned and entered the building, finding his room on the first floor with little trouble. He opened it and walked in, leaving the door open for the younger student to enter. He dropped his box of things on the floor and flopped onto the bed. "You know it, Em. You're now allowed to go to me for help without heading to the adults as well." From the bag he had carefully placed on his stomach, Odd pulled his dog out and put him on the floor.
The little brunette watching him let out a cheer and tackled him. "That's awesome, Odd!"
The blonde grinned and looked out the window, watching as the sunlight filtered through. "You're right, Em, it is."
Nurse Mollis: Her full name is Arnica Mollis, which is an herb used to treat bruises, strains, and sprains.
Counselor Valerian: Valerian is a type of herb that can be used as a type of sedative.
Parkour: I feel that Odd, with a small body and cat like attitude, would be really proficient in parkour. Plus, I wanted him to learn something that wasn't fighting-based, and parkour was created in France, so I thought it would be cool to give him.
Since I really screwed up the timeline that I made for Odd, here's a way to sum it up: all of the changes took place during his ninth grade second semester, except for the ambidextrous thing, which he gained over the summer. It is currently (in the story) the beginning of his tenth grade year.
All of these characters are OCs. And, as a warning, there WILL be more OCs. Odd will NOT be getting a girlfriend at all in this story. I see him as the little/big brother you can't help but love. This story will focus on Odd's relationship with the younger students as his friends slowly figure out how much he means to the group. It also focuses on Odd just being Odd, if a little more serious as well.
Please review.
Ja ne!