1: The Meeting

Janika grabbed her two duffels and nearly ran up the steps toward the dorms. The whole world was perfect! She was in harmony with the universe and could hardly wait to tell the gang about her vacation!

The door opened just before Janika reached it and she careened into someone leaving. The dark-haired girl found herself lying on top of a weird-looking teenager. "I didn't know the circus was in town," she laughed.

The girl dressed completely in blue extracted herself from the mess and looked down at the other. "I'm sorry too."

"Okay, okay, I apologize. Could you help me out here?" The strange kid picked up a bag. "Thanks. You don't look familiar. Are you new?"

"I transferred from America a couple weeks ago. The name's Tanzanite, but most people call me Tanzi." She pushed back her very, very long blue ponytail.

"You're from the U.S.? Me too. Let me guess, your favorite music is the Blues."

Tanz chortled. "Nope. Oldies."

She rolled her eyes as they tugged the bags up the stairwell. "Oh. Well, the name's Janika. I—"

"Nika!? Oh, I know all about you! Your friends told me everything. I can't believe I didn't recognize you from your picture. Well, they never said exactly when you were getting back, but I suppose I should have expected it. You know you have a funky accent, right? I can tell you're American a mile away."

She tried to keep her cool. Just one more flight up the stairs. "Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

"Well if it's not then I'd consider it a pretty lousy insult. Anyway, the gang is really neat. I especially like Odd. He is so sweet! I swear he's, like, just too spunky for words, you know? I mean, you just expect him to be cool the second you meet him."

The dark-haired girl tried not to be rude, but the harmony of the evening was being leached dry. She grabbed her duffel out of Tanzi's hand and plastered on a fake smile. "I can make it to my room from here, thanks. Maybe I'll see you later."

She nodded amiably. "Of course. We'll probably be spending a lot of time together."

"Great. Gotta go." Janika made a break for it and left Tanz in a cloud of dust. She barely made it inside her room before she imploded. That girl was so...bizarre! Talk about an idiosyncrasy. She definitely had a blue fetish.

The dark-haired teen unpacked quickly and then went upstairs. Maybe Odd or Ulrich was home. She knocked and the blonde boy opened the door. Her heart fluttered slightly as he gave her a warm smile.

"Janika, you're back!" he cried. "Come on in."

"Thanks. I have a lot of stuff to tell you guys." She walked in and stopped in her tracks as Tanzi's figure came into view. The girl was sprawled across Odd's bed, feet in the air, giggling incessantly. "Uh, what are you doing here?"

"I told you we'd be seeing more of each other."

Odd sat down beside her and motioned to a chair for Janika. "I take it you two have met. That's great! Now you said you had good news?"

"Uh...no. I just wanted to tell...to talk with the whole gang, you know. I spent two weeks at home and a lot of stuff happened. Just thought you guys might want to know about it, but I guess not." She picked at a stray thread in her shirt.

Odd looked a little nervous. "Well, we're really glad you're back. Me and Tanzi were going to join the others at the cafeteria later on. We wanted to discuss a matter with you when you got back from your trip."

Something in his voice made her look up sharply. He was never vague like this without good reason. "Is it about the place?" she asked casting a wary eye Tanzi's way.

The shorter girl smiled jovially and spoke up. "You mean Lyoko?"

"Odd you didn't! Did you?" Janika asked him, fearing the worst. This couldn't be happening!

Odd gave a dopey smile and gazed at the one beside him, star-struck. "Yeah." He was oblivious to everything except Tanzi as she plopped a huge kiss on his forehead.

With that she bounced off the bed screaming, "Lunchtime!" Tanz ran out of the room dancing idiotically. "Lunch, lunch! My favorite subject! LUNCH!!!"

"I don't even want to know." Janika stared at the open door, giving Odd a napkin, "You have blue lipstick on your forehead."

"Uh huh," Odd wiped it off as he was running after the prancing blue girl.

"Odd, wait!" But the blonde kid was gone.