It's been way too long since I last wrote a CL fanfic. Gonna be honest, thought my return to the fandom would be more...serious than this? Except it's me so yeah, never mind. Kind of inspired by RenaYumi's April Fool universe, hence the people doing sneaky things. Wrote this in a midnight writing spree, so it might be imperfect. Let me know what you think!
Poorly muffled giggling, interspersed with the occasional hissed 'shut up!' drifted though his closed door, pulling him from what had been an otherwise comfortable sleep. Groaning, he tried to roll over and return to his dreams, but the giggling refused to leave.
Jeremy frowned.
With a speed that would have impressed the track team, Jeremy was in his slippers, at his door, and flinging it open to look down the hall. A startled yelp echoed in the hall, but by the time Jeremy was looking for the culprit they'd vanished around a corner and out of sight. Narrowing his eyes, Jeremy retreated back to his room. He wasn't sure of the who behind the mysterious giggles, but he was pretty certain of the why. His gaze drifted to the slip of paper on his desk.
With a groan Jeremy flopped back into his bed, smothering his face in his pillow as he tried to forget the stupid paper, and the stupid day that had brought it into his life.
They should have seen it coming, they really should have. The moment Ms. Hertz entered her classroom the previous morning, no lesson plans in hand and frowning at the shoebox in arms, her class should have sensed the danger and scattered right then like cockroaches from the light. But, sadly, they were too caught up in their own discussions of the coming weekend—he was going to do this, she was planning that—and therefore missed their chance at escape.
"Class!" Ms. Hertz had called, waving a hand to get her chatty students' attentions. "Good morning class, I have some wonderful news for you all."
She didn't sound all that excited so, assuming that their frizzy haired teacher was about to announce some sort of surprise dissection, the group refrained from excitement.
"You're all getting a long weekend, starting now. Classes for the rest of the day have been canceled."
That certainly turned a few heads. The excited pre-class chatter returned in full force, all of the students caught up in the joy of an extra day out of classes.
How they had failed to become suspicious at this point would forever remain a mystery.
"Now class hasn't been canceled without reason," Ms. Hertz said quickly, gaining the gathered teens' attentions once more. "Our principal, Mr. Delmas, has decided to use this weekend to try out a school wide activity he has been planning for some time now. It's sort of a game he has devised to help get students excited about school."
The room filled with groans. Mr. Delmas's activity was already sounding lame. Ms. Hertz, who looked like she was struggling not to roll her eyes, seemed to agree.
"Each of you will come up to my desk and take a slip of paper from this box," Ms. Hertz continued, tapping the shoebox she'd brought with her. "You are not to tell anyone what it is that your slip of paper says other than myself. I will write down your task here," she paused to show the class her clipboard, "and then I will watch you through-out the weekend to see that you are doing as your slip says. If you complete your task you will receive full points. If not, you will receive none. Simple enough, yes?"
The class responded with a general nodding and a few scattered yes's. Someone launched a spitball which stuck to the chalkboard. Ms. Hertz ignored it.
"Alright everyone, come on up and get your slips!"
The group of students could have possibly used that moment to rally together and rush the door, escaping out into the school free of the paper slips. But they did not, instead herding together at their teacher's desk, reaching one by one into the shoebox to receive their tasks.
Afterwards they'd dispersed into the hall, Jeremy retreating with his friends to their usual bench to wait for Yumi and see if she was facing the same excited-about-school activity that they were.
"What did you get?" Odd asked as they waited, appearing suddenly at the blonde's shoulder.
"I don't think we're supposed to tell each other," Aelita said, pulling her own slip close when Odd scooted onto the bench beside her.
"I'll tell you mine," Odd offered. He offered the pink haired girl a conspiratorial grin, waving his own slip.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Mr. Della Robbia," a new voice said. The group turned as one to see an unusually excited looking Delmas hovering nearby. He had a clipboard in hand.
"Wouldn't dream of it!" Odd said, quickly stuffing away his paper. As the group had hovered in the courtyard they'd watched Delmas, along with other members of the school's staff, pouncing on students who dared to share their tasks with friends. They were an efficient bunch, to say the least, and by lunchtime the student body was beginning to develop something of a nervous tick over their tasks, making extra efforts to avoid looking like they were spilling anything secret to anyone around them.
Jeremy, like his classmates, had kept his task to himself.
Do Something that Scares You.
"Whatever that means," Jeremy huffed into his pillow. He was afraid of bears, did Delmas expect him to go find one to hang out with? It seemed like a bit of a reckless task for an educator to assign to a student (for a grade, no less!). It hadn't even been the first task Jeremy had pulled, but Ms. Hertz wasn't half way through writing down 'learn something new' before she'd snatched the slip away and given Jeremy a new one, adding something about "supposed to be challenging" as she did.
Eventually someone knocking on his door drew Jeremy from his moping around in bed. Wondering briefly if it might be his giggling visitors, Jeremy was pleased to instead be met by the smiling pair of Yumi and Aelita.
"Good morning, ladies."
"You're still wearing your pajamas!" Aelita greeted before slipping inside Jeremy's dorm. Yumi offered a shrug that suggested this wasn't the first of Aelita's surprisingly blunt outbursts before following her inside.
"Happy Saturday, Jer," she said as she settled on his bed.
"It is Saturday," Aelita agreed.
"You too. Joining us for breakfast, I assume?"
"Might as well," Yumi said. "I have to be on campus until I complete Task Day."
"Complete what?"
"That's what they're calling it," she said, holding up her paper slip.
"We're not supposed to share those," Aelita said quickly, followed by Yumi's,
"I figured I could hang out with you at least until I'm finished. I already tested Ulrich, he and Odd are going to meet us in the cafeteria."
"I'll just get changed then, and we'll go." Jeremy gave the girls a pointed look, but all they did was grin at him and then theatrically hide behind each other's hands. With a disapproving frown, Jeremy changed quickly and then trailed the girls to breakfast.
As they moved through the dorms Yumi darted at every half open door, trying to tug them out of the hands of the people opening them. She even made a lunge for someone trying to tie their shoe. Jeremy tried to ask her what she was doing, but after her third dodgy answer he just assumed it had something to do with "Task Day" and let it go.
In the cafeteria Yumi kept letting people cut them in line, gaze darting to Rosa behind the counter and Jim at one of the tables, both adults toting clipboards.
"Yumi, can we please just get to the counter?" Aelita asked. "I'm kind of—" she hesitated, gaze glancing to Rosa as well, "—I'm very, very hungry, and would like to eat soon."
"Yeah, okay," Yumi huffed after exchanging a long look with Jim that ended with a shake of the head from the coach. "Wasn't working anyway," the taller girl mumbled as she snatched a tray. After thoughtful moment, Aelita responded with,
"I'm hungry."
"I know." Yumi let Aelita cut a head of her as they reached the food. Once their trays were filled they joined Ulrich, who abruptly stopped talking at their approach, and Odd, who looked like he was trying way too hard to look interested in what his friend was saying.
"It's morning and I'm hungry," Aelita informed the pair brightly.
"That's so interesting, Aelita!" Odd cried, leaping up to pull out Aelita's chair.
"So it's going to be that kind of day, huh?" Ulrich asked as Yumi took the seat beside him.
"You know it. How's Task Day going?"
"For us or the school?" Ulrich asked.
"Uh, both?"
Their gazes drifted around the room, taking in the collection of students. Quite a few were imitating Yumi, to the point that a kind of leapfrog was taking place at the back of the lunch line. Some were eyeing the room warily, others looking almost predatory as they scanned the crowd. At the table across from theirs, one of the soccer players was attempting to get a startled looking Herve to play chess with him. Sissi was ignoring the confused looks her crony was flashing her as she tried to talk to a less than interested looking Tamia. Across the room Theo was yelling at the person next to him. Someone in the lunch line seemed to be trying to order their lunch in Morse code.
"This…is kind of ridiculous."
"I don't know how this is supposed to foster excitement about school," Aelita said.
"William looks excited," Odd said.
Jeremy thought the dark haired boy looked as far removed from excited as one possibly could. He was scowling around the room, frown drifting from one oddly behaving schoolmate to the next.
And then their gazes met, and Jeremy swore he could see relief flaring in the boy's gaze. In an instant William had gathered his lunch tray and moved over to their table, where he hovered at Jeremy's shoulder for a minute before asking an uncertain,
"Can I join you?"
"Sure," Yumi said, although William wouldn't sit down until Jeremy echoed the sentiment. Ulrich scowled at their new addition, Odd looking briefly like he wanted to do the same. Instead, the blonde said,
"Welcome, William! It's so nice to have you join us."
Aelita flashed a quick look between William, Odd, and Jim with his clipboard, and added a rushed, "William just sat down at our table."
"Yes he did," Yumi agreed.
"Uh, yeah," William said. He frowned uncertainly, then turned to Jeremy and asked, "So, what are you doing today?"
"Uh, well, I hadn't really planned on anything really. Just my task thing, I guess. What about you guys?" Jeremy added, opening the question to the table.
"I was going to go to the store, actually," Ulrich said, before suddenly covering his mouth like he'd said to much.
"I would love to come with you, Ulrich," Odd said.
"I'll help—wait." Yumi frowned. "No, you're fine. You two can go alone." Ulrich flashed Yumi a quizzical look, which she shrugged off as Aelita said,
"I'm doing my task all day."
"All day?" William asked. "What kind of task are you doing that takes all day?"
Aelita opened her mouth, closed it abruptly, then frowned. A thoughtful silence followed, the group exchanging uncertain looks before Aelita blurted, "I'm not allowed to tell you about my task!" She then looked quickly to Jim, who nodded approvingly and jotted something on his clipboard. Aelita sighed and sank into her chair.
"Uh, okay then. Well, Jeremy, if you're not doing much, do you want to hang out with me?"
Jeremy was surprised by the offer, even more so when Ulrich started nodding emphatically.
"That sounds like a great idea, Jer! Isn't it about time you two got to know one another better?"
"I guess so," Jeremy said, quirking an eyebrow at his friend. When Ulrich continued to nod encouragingly Jeremy turned to William and asked, "What would you like to do today?"
"Well, I was going to go work on some sketches out in the park."
"That sounds like a great idea, I think you would both a have a lot of fun doing that. In fact, why don't you go now, while you still have the, er, nice morning light." Jeremy frowned openly at Ulrich, while now William was the one nodding along.
"Yeah, we should get out there while it's still bright. I can lend you some supplies and we can sketch together."
"Uh, sure, sounds fun," Jeremy said. He glanced around his friends, who all looked oddly supportive of his sudden art rendezvous with William. When his gaze landed on Aelita she hesitated and then said,
"You're going to go hang out with William."
"I guess I am," Jeremy said. They finished their breakfast, and then Jeremy followed William back to the older boy's dorm. After arming themselves with sketchbooks and pencil sets they started for the park. They were just choosing their drawing spot when they noticed someone lurking nearby.
"What are you guys doing?" Sissi asked once she realized she'd been spotted.
"Building boats," William deadpanned over his armful of art supplies. Sissi's reply laugh was only partially sarcastic.
"Mind if I join you guys?"
"I guess not?" Jeremy said, glancing at William. The older boy shrugged, and as they settled in the grass Sissi fussed about for a 'clean' place to sit.
"So, what are you guys going to draw?"
"Landscapes," William said, nose already in his sketchbook.
"I've never drawn a landscape before," Jeremy said, craning to see what William was drawing. "You might have been better off asking Odd to join you on this one."
"It's not that hard. Just start small, like with a tree, or a flower. How about that one," William said, pointing with his pencil to a wide oak tree a little ways from them.
"Alright." Brow furrowing, Jeremy set to his task. When he was ready he offered his attempt to William.
The absolutely life-like drawing William shared back made Jeremy's attempt look like a scribble.
"No, yours is good too!" William offered when Jeremy told him as much.
"It's…impressionistic," Sissi agreed.
"What do you know about impressionism?" Jeremy grumbled.
"Plenty, actually," Sissi huffed. She snatched the sketchbook from Jeremy and, pencil poised, offered a curt, "Watch this."
In the end, her attempt wasn't that much better than Jeremy's had been. Grumbling, Sissi had started to declare that she was done hanging out with boring people when a tandem bicycle peddled past that just so happened to be carrying two clipboard wielding Kadic staffers. The trio frowned their confusion as the teachers passed, and then Sissi settled back beside them.
"Okay, fine. Show me how to sketch better."
It was lunch time when the group returned to school. Along the way they'd run into Ulrich and Odd, both burdened with shopping bags. Jeremy made it halfway through saying hello before Ulrich gave a startled yelp and bolted, Odd trailing an, "I hope you guys are having a wonderful day!" behind him as they ran.
In the cafeteria they found a slightly more frantic version of the dining situation from the morning. A few students were looking relived, having likely completed their tasks for the day. The rest were doubling down their efforts. The leapfrogging in the lunch line was edging on violent. Herve was now surrounded by people toting a variety of board games (one person was even holding a set of beakers). Yumi was glued to a student with a broken arm, whose lunch tray she was loading up. Theo was full on screaming.
"It's lunch time," Aelita said as she wandered past the trio. They followed her into the line, skipping around the lunch line limbo. Someone handed them trays before they could get their own, which caused Rosa to start scribbling on her clipboard.
"This is getting a little out of hand," William said, gaze skimming the room. Jeremy nodded as he spotted a group of students, armed with an assortment of tools, standing around a broken door that looked like they just might have broken it themselves.
"At least people are finding things to do," Jeremy said as they hunted for a seat. "Usually everyone just hides in their dorms all weekend."
"Maybe that's not a bad thing." Sissi scowled in Theo's direction as she spoke.
They ate quickly and then retreated to the field once Sissi complained loudly enough that it was her turn to pick their activity. Her attempt to get them to practice baton twirling with her, however, fell just a little flat. After twenty minutes of participating, the boys retreated with their batons to leave Sissi practicing in peace. For a short while the pair fought a half-hearted sword fight, until Jeremy pointed out that they were acting like Ulrich and Odd. Pulling twin looks of disgust, they settled instead on discussing the most intellectual topics they could think of in an attempt to remind themselves of the differences between themselves and the dastardly duo.
Eventually Sissi hunted them down, hands on her hips as she demanded to know why they weren't helping her practice.
"Really?" Jeremy had asked, followed by William's,
"Do we seem like people who like to exercise for fun? I spent the morning drawing."
"Well, what would you rather do?" she huffed.
"Anything else."
"Anything?" Jeremy asked, glancing between the two.
William nodded. Sissi, scowl in place, didn't argue, so Jeremy took that as a yes as well. He quickly scrambled to his feet, leaving them to follow as he lead the way across campus to the one place that he was sure he knew better than either of his companions.
The library was surprisingly packed for a Saturday, likely a result of a certain task themed assignment. Inside they scooted around clusters of students who'd clearly either been tasked with 'learn something' or 'go to a building on campus you've never been in and frown at the books,' based on the number of scowls being passed around the shelves. Even Yumi was there. Apparently her task had something to do with broken limbs, because she'd found another student with a broken arm, whose book she was hold up while they read.
When they first arrived, Sissi sighed and tried to drag them right back out the door, and only relented after multiple insistences from Jeremy that he could find a book both she and William would like.
Between two students attempting to read a book titled Advancements in Nuclear Fission: What Does it Mean for You?, Jeremy found just the tome he was looking for.
"Well, what do you think?" he asked as he watched Sissi and William pawing through the anatomy text. He stopped them on a page covered in color diagrams of arms. "See, I thought this would help you with your baton, Sissi. There's a whole section on what goes into throwing things, and another on hand-eye coordination."
"Yeah, because studying a book would ever help someone in sports," Sissi scoffed. When Jeremy motioned encouragingly she skimmed a section, and then another. "That's interesting," she mumbled, a finger coming up to help her keep her place.
"And I thought a book like this might help you with your art," Jeremy said to William. "I saw you sketching some of the people in the park. I thought maybe sketching from a book with lots of body poses would help you practice."
"It just might," William said, nodding slowly.
"I have a few more in my dorm, if you want to borrow some," Jeremy offered.
"Why do you have anatomy books in your dorm?" Sissi asked. Jeremy hesitated, not sure that 'because I thought they would help me get my friend out of a computer' was something he should share.
"For science class."
"We need anatomy books for science class?" Sissi asked. "I don't remember us studying anatomy yet."
"One of the downsides to having other people do your homework for you, I'm sure," William mumbled. Sissi growled something unpleasant under her breath, but thankfully dropped the topic. "I wouldn't mind borrowing a couple, if you don't mind," William continued.
"Not at all."
After helping Sissi check out a book of her own (Jeremy swore he'd never seen anyone so confused by a library card in all his life), they returned to the dorms. On the short trek to Jeremy's door they passed by Jim, who, oddly enough, started to follow them down the hall.
"I see some of you are hard at work on your tasks," Jim said, giving Sissi and William pointed looks.
"I'm certainly trying," William agreed, frowning as Jim fell in alongside him.
"Good work, Dunbar. You and Delmas get full points for the day."
"Whoopie," Sissi said, rolling her eyes as she fished her paper slip from her pocket and crumpling it. She glanced at the blonde beside her as she did. "What about Jeremy? Did he pass his yet?"
"Not yet," Jim said, skimming his clipboard. "Might want to get on that, Belpois."
"Yeah, I know," Jeremy sighed. "Any suggestions?" he started to ask, but as he reached his door he feel silent. He could hear the muffled sounds of someone (or someones) inside his room. The giggling from the morning was back, along with what sounded like Ulrich's 'Odd, shut up!' and Aelita's 'if you keep making noises, there is a chance that Jeremy will hear us.'
"Oh boy," Jeremy mumbled, frowning at his door. "I'm kind of afraid to go inside."
His mind flashed to the paper still on his desk—Do Something that Scares You—and his gaze shot to Jim.
"This has to count," he said as he pushed his key into his lock. Jim shrugged, and scribbled on his clipboard.
"Works for me. And let your little friends in there know they passed too." Shaking his head, Jim continued to write on his clipboard as he walked away. "This whole day's kind of ridiculous," Jeremy could hear him saying as he walked away. "Reminds me of the time…"
"Well, we could walk away now," William said once Jim was gone.
"And then what, sleep in the wall way?" Jeremy asked. "I might as well get it over with." Taking a deep breath, Jeremy turned his key, bracing himself for whatever he was going to find inside him dorm.
"Surprise!"
The chorus of shouts left Jeremy blinking in the doorway as poppers showered him with confetti. A few of the mass of balloons carpeting his room drifted around his legs and into the hall. Someone threw a streamer.
"Surprised?" Odd asked as he grabbed the group at the door and pulled them inside.
"Why—what are you guys doing?" Jeremy asked, still blinking his surprise as his gaze shifted across all of his friends, all wearing party hats and all crammed into his small room.
"It's, uh, you know," Ulrich said, glancing out the window as he fumbled his words.
"If it's for your Task Day assignment, don't worry about tell us," William said. "Jim already told us we all got full points."
"Oh good," Ulrich said. "I had to plan a party."
"For me?" Jeremy asked.
"For anyone, I guess." Ulrich shrugged. "But since I couldn't tell you guys I figured it had to be a surprise party, and you would be the last person to suspect it. What about you, what did you have to do?"
"Something that scared me," Jeremy said. "Which was coming in here, by the way."
"Thanks," Ulrich deadpanned. Aelita, laughing, pulled Jeremy into a hug.
"I had to tell the truth all day," she said.
"Which explains the bluntness," Yumi said, now also laughing.
"You don't realize how many things you sugar coat until you can't," Aelita said, pulling a face. "Speaking of which, I'm starving! Where are the snacks?"
"So much for sugar coating," Odd teased as he produced, from seemingly nowhere, a pile of chip bags.
"So, what did the rest of you have to do?" William asked as he settled on the floor beside Odd, who was tearing into a bag of cheese puffs.
"I had to talk to someone I didn't usually talk to," Sissi said. "Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."
"Thanks…I think," Jeremy said, while the others laughed.
"I had to make a new friend," William said with a shrug. "Not sure if I did, but…"
"Close enough," Jeremy said, shrugging back and offering the older boy a smile.
"I'm going to guess that Yumi was supposed to harass injured people," Ulrich said.
"Not even close," Yumi sighed, while everyone who'd seen her following around people with casts laughed. "I had to help three strangers. I think a lot of people got that one, actually. Was that yours, Odd? You seemed helpful and nice today, for once."
"I'm always nice and helpful!" Odd cried. "And for your information, I had to 'share the love' today."
"What on earth does that mean?" Jeremy asked, while Ulrich groaned.
"Apparently it meant follow me around and loudly tell people I was his best friend, because that's what he did the whole time we were in town."
"Not sure how this made up excited about school," William said while the others laughed.
"I think it just made us excited about doing school work that wasn't this," Yumi said, holding up her slip of paper.
"It made friendships!" Odd cried, pointing between William, Jeremy, and Sissi. The trio raised eyebrows at Odd in unison.
"So basically it was a pointless assignment," Jeremy said.
"Not totally pointless," Ulrich said. "We got to listen to Theo spend the whole day screaming at people and none of the teachers could tell him to stop."
"And I think those kids are still trying to fix the cafeteria door," Yumi added.
The group went back and forth sharing some of the various escapades they'd caught their schoolmates doing, sympathizing with some, laughing not-so-sympathetically at others. And as they chatted Jeremy, who was glad to finally be hearing laughter that wasn't muffled giggles on the other side of his door, thought that maybe getting the weekend off to hang out with his friends made for a not-quite-so-pointless (but still pretty pointless) assignment after all.