Note From ~*~lyokoluver94~*~: In this fanfic, Mollie basically takes the place of William. I'm not saying anything about if she gets captured by XANA or anything; that'll just have to stay a mystery for now. This fanfic takes place at the end of Season 2 and before the events of Season 3, around the time of Lyoko Minus One.
Copyright: All Code Lyoko characters and places- Moonscoop and the creators
Mollie Anne Charles- Me: ~*~lyokoluver94~*~
"Miss Charles? Miss Charles!"
"Yes, ma'am?"
"Miss Charles, stop eating that banana and come to the board to do the problem!"
"But ma'am, I don't know the Theory of Relativity. . ."
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!
Mollie woke up with a start. Her eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the light now pouring in from her dorm window.
What a strange dream, she thought. She frowned at this. Mollie knew she only had weird dreams like that when she was stressed out or nervous; when there were a lot of things on her mind. Starting a new school was most definitely stressful.
She sat up and blinked a few more times, glancing at the clock on her desk as she did so. It flashed 7:15 am in bright red.
Shoot! I'm going to be late, Mollie thought as she jumped to her feet. She almost tripped as soon as she did this; the dorm bed was closer to the ground than she was used to.
Mollie hurriedly yanked open her closet door and shuffled through her clothing. Finding something suitable, she pulled out an ankle-length light and dark periwinkle skirt and a long-sleeved dark blue top. She quickly threw her night clothes off and changed. Mollie knew she should be taking more time to get her things ready, but she was frustrated she had overslept.
She walked to the writing desk placed underneath the window in search of her hairbrush and nearly tripped again, catching herself on her desk chair. Mollie glanced down and saw her light tan boots lying on the floor. Reminding herself not to leave those there again, she hopped on one foot as she slipped her right boot on, switched feet, and took care of the left.
Straightening up, Mollie grabbed her brush from the desk and swiped it through her hair. She threw her brush down on her bed and grabbed her notebooks from the corner of the desk.
"Oh, no. . . Where is it? Where is it?" Mollie muttered to herself. She sifted through the piles of papers already spilled out on her desk: notes and reminders to herself, some pictures from home, a map of the school and all its buildings, and a journal she had told herself she would keep up with here, but so far, there was nothing to report. She didn't even want to think about what her desk would look like with a day's worth of homework spread out on it.
Finally, she came across the piece of paper she was looking for. It was regular sized, with her name, the school's name, the principal's name, and all of her classes and teachers printed neatly in little boxes and rows. It was the one small form of structure Mollie had since she'd arrived some days before.
"Ah ha! Found you," she said. Mollie, after finally getting all herself situated, crossed the small room and headed for the door.
On her way out, she passed a small mirror she had hung up on the wall and sighed a little. No matter how much she brushed her long brown hair, it always seemed to frizz up again. Mollie shrugged it off and opened the door.
Had Mollie not looked down at the schedule in her hand as she exited her room, she would've seen another student closing the door behind her and turn to make her way down the hall. Alas, Mollie didn't, and ran right into her.
"Ow!" Mollie exclaimed. She almost dropped her books as she regained her balance, but she kept a grip on them. The girl she'd bumped let out a small gasp of surprise, then quickly apologized.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," the girl said. "I didn't see you there."
"I'm sorry," said Mollie. "I wasn't looking where I was going."
"That's all right, neither was I," the girl smiled. Mollie smiled back. She assumed this girl lived in the room next to hers, since she had just come out that door.
Well, it'd be nice to make friends with someone," thought Mollie. "I'm Mollie," she said.
"Aelita," the other girl smiled.
Mollie nodded a little in response, thinking to end the conversation like that, though a bit awkwardly, and be on her way to her first class; until she realized that she actually wasn't too sure where that was. She did have a school map, but Mollie had never been good at map-reading throughout elementary school, finding it much too confusing at times. She quickly thought to ask for help from her new acquaintance.
She shifted her gaze casually down to her schedule as she asked, "Um, Aelita, do you think you could help me with something? Today is my first day of classes, and I don't know where anything is."
"Uh, sure," Aelita said brightly. "What do you need help finding?"
"Everything," Aelita laughed at this and both girls started down the hall.
"Well, what class do you have first?" Aelita asked.
"My science class is first, in the Science Building. I have Mrs. Hertz," said Mollie, reading off her schedule.
"What a coincidence, that's my first class, too," said Aelita. Mollie smiled. At least she wouldn't be completely friendless in that class.
By the time the girls had gotten downstairs to the dorm building's entrance, Aelita had told Mollie exactly how to get from the dorms to the science building. Mollie thanked Aelita and began to make her way to the building.
"I'll see you in class!" called Aelita as she walked off in the opposite direction.
A thought occurred to Aelita as she and Mollie went their separate ways. Uh oh, she thought. I hope I'm not too late. She quickened her pace towards the crossroads.
Aelita arrived at a small side cove with a few vending machines and her four friends waiting. She saw a tall, pretty girl dressed in black leaning back against a wall and looking out at nothing. A brown haired boy wearing nearly all green stood against the opposite wall with a cup of coffee in his hand, looking the other way. A short blond boy covered, quite literally, head to toe in purple was kicking the drinking machine in frustration. Lastly, with a small smile, she saw another blond, sweet boy leaning on the wall next to their friends with his eyes drooping shut, his black glasses sliding down his nose.
The older girl turned her head and saw her friend approaching.
"Hey, Aelita. Where were you? You're never late."
Hearing Aelita's name, the sleeping genius woke up and turned to look at her. "Hi Aelita," he said with a smile. "Yumi's right, you're never late. I was getting a little worried."
"Hello," Aelita said to all. "And I'm sorry I was late. I was giving a new student directions to her class, and we started talking."
"That was nice of you," said Yumi with a smile.
"Hey, Jeremie, any news about XANA?" asked the quiet boy as he sipped his drink.
"Nope, none. He's been quiet for a while now," replied Jeremie.
"Don't you think that's a little strange?" asked Aelita.
"What I think is strange is why this stupid machine gave Ulrich his drink when it won't give me mine!" yelled the boy still kicking the vending machine.
"Cool it, Odd. Here, you can have mine, I'm finished with it," said Ulrich, handing over his cup.
"Really? Thanks Ulrich, you're the- Hey!" he said, looking down into the cup. "There's nothing in here!" His friends had already started leaving for their classes and chuckled back at him. Odd tossed the cup into the garbage can nearby. "Very funny, Ulrich. You're going to get it at lunch," he called after his friends as they walked toward the buildings of Kadic.
Aelita and three boys Mollie didn't know walked into Mrs. Hertz's classroom and headed for their seats. As Aelita sat down, she turned around and saw Mollie sitting in the seat behind Jeremie. She gave Mollie a little wave and Mollie smiled back. Aelita opened her mouth to greet her new friend, but Mrs. Hertz walked into the room and told the class to settle down and be quiet. She started the class by picking up the chalk from the ledge on the board and writing a series of symbols and letters on the chalkboard. She didn't acknowledge Mollie to the class or let her students know there was another added to the bunch, but Mollie had met Mrs. Hertz the day before, so she felt introductions beyond that weren't quite necessary.
It took Mollie a little while to follow what was going on; science hadn't been her best subject in her previous years of schooling. Mrs. Hertz was going on about protons and neutrons with only half the class paying attention.
About halfway through the seemingly endless lesson, a very strange event happened. Actually, a few strange things happened almost all at once.
First, Mollie heard a muffled beeping noise. Immediately, four heads, who happened to be Aelita and the friends she was with, turned and looked at the ground. Mollie thought this was extremely odd, but then realized that the kids were looking at the beeping object: a laptop that the boy in front of her had taken out of a green backpack at his feet. The boy put the laptop on his lap to keep it hidden from Mrs. Hertz, who must not have heard the noise. He peeked at the computer's screen. The beeping sound got a little louder as he did this, but no one else had noticed it, or if they had, maybe it was so common and not unusual that they ignored it?
The boy tapped a few keys, and then put the laptop back in his bag. He then turned to look at the two boys sitting at the table to the right of Mollie and nodded at them. They nodded back, and he turned to face front. The boy raised his hand and said, "Mrs. Hertz? May I please go to the infirmary? I don't feel very well."
"Yes, Jeremie, go ahead," said the teacher, turning her head to see the boy. "Will someone please take him?"
"I will!" said three voices at once.
"No, that won't be necessary. I think Miss Stones can handle it on her own," she said to the two boys sitting next to Mollie. All four of them were standing up, looking tense. They looked at each other, then back at Mrs. Hertz. She turned around again and said, "Go ahead, Jeremie. You and Aelita can go to the infirmary. Odd and Ulrich, please sit down." She turned back to the board and resumed writing.
Jeremie looked at Aelita, then nodded at Ulrich and Odd, who nodded again in return and sat back down. Jeremie and Aelita left the room in a hurry.
That was odd. . . thought Mollie, but Mrs. Hertz was still writing and talking, and Odd and Ulrich, she saw, were both looking at the board with the same slight interest as the rest of the class, and so she shook the thought from her head.
The rest of the lesson went as tedious as before. However, as soon as the bell rang 20 minutes later, Mollie looked down to gather her books, not all that eager to leave the classroom and wander around the school grounds until she found her next class, or until she found someone else as nice as Aelita who would help her.
When she looked back up from the desktop, she glanced over at the table where the other two boys had been seated; but they were already gone. Mollie quickly went outside the classroom and looked around the hallway, but the boys were nowhere to be seen.
Jeremie and Aelita ran through the park, trying as quickly as they could to get to the clearing that lied up ahead.
"Jeremie, is there an activated tower?" asked Aelita.
"Yes," answered Jeremie, struggling to keep up a steady pace. Running wasn't his best sport.
The two of them reached the small clearing and Aelita lifted the sewer top over to the side. She slid through the opening in the ground and started down the ladder. Jeremie followed, pulling out his cell phone as he stepped onto the first rung of the built-in ladder.
Yumi sat with her head in her hand, listening to her history teacher list facts about Shakespeare. She held her cell phone loosely in her other hand, a habit she had acquired ever since she first found out how frequently XANA liked to attack. She jumped a little as her phone buzzed softly, muffled by her hand cushioning the speaker. She ducked down in her seat a bit and held the phone up to her ear.
"Hello?" she whispered.
"Yumi, it's Jeremie," she heard on the other end. "XANA's launched an attack. Come to the factory."
"Ok," said Yumi, and she hung up. She tucked her phone away in her pocket and raised her hand.
"Sir!" she called out. The teacher turned around and inquired what her question was with his expression. "May I please go to the infirmary? My head hurts."
"Of course, Miss Ishiyama. Do you need someone to go with you?" he asked.
"No no, I'm fine," she said as she stood up. The class watched her leave and she tried to make her pace slow and normal. Once she was out of the room, she ran for the park.
Jeremie and Aelita raced down the sewer tunnel on their scooters, Jeremie trying to keep his balance with his cell phone cradled between his ear and shoulder. They stopped at the ladder leading up to the bridge connecting to an abandoned factory on the edge of town. Jeremie got off his scooter and put his phone away.
"Yumi's on her way," he told Aelita as she leaned her scooter up against the sewer wall.
"And what about Ulrich and Odd?" she asked.
"They'll know to come after class," he told her as they climbed up the ladder. "For now, you and Yumi will have to handle things on your own."
The two jogged to the factory entrance. They grabbed two of the ropes hanging from the ceiling and shimmied down.
Once they were in the laboratory, Jeremie sat down in the large yellow chair in front of the Supercomputer. He picked up a small black headset and placed it on his ear. Aelita stood behind him and watched as he punched a few keys on the keyboard and located the tower.
"Looks like it's in the Mountain Sector," said Aelita, leaning over Jeremie's shoulder.
"Yep," he said, not taking his eyes off the screen. "Head down to the scanners, Aelita. I'll send Yumi as soon as-"
Yumi's Lyoko card popped up on the screen with a speaker box. Jeremie pushed a button on the keyboard and said, "Yumi? Where are you?"
"I'm at the factory heading towards the elevator," she replied.
"Good," said Jeremie. "Go straight to the Scanner Room. Aelita-" he turned around to face the pink haired warrior, but the elevator doors were already hissing shut with her behind them as she smiled and headed for battle.
Aelita stood in front of a scanner, waiting patiently. The elevator doors opened, and Yumi stepped out.
"Hey, Aelita. Where are the boys?"
"They're slaves of Mrs. Hertz," said Aelita with a smile.
"Ok ladies," said Jeremie's voice, echoing around the small room. "Step insi- Huh? What's going on?"
Jeremie pushed his glasses farther up on his nose and looked at the screen. There was something wrong with the window that showed the activated tower—but that was just it. There was no activated tower anymore.
"What's this all about?" he asked to himself.
"Jeremie? Are you there? What's wrong?" came Aelita's voice from the Scanner Room.
"I think you guys better come up here," said Jeremie.
"Is everything ok?" asked Yumi as she and Aelita walked toward the elevator.
"I don't know. . ." Jeremie replied.
The elevator hissed open and Yumi and Aelita walked over to their friend hunched over at the Supercomputer.
"What happened?" asked Aelita, looking at the screen as numbers and letters flew by. "Was there something wrong with the Virtualization process?"
"No, it's not that," answered Jeremie. "It's the activated tower. It's not activated anymore."
"Really? Are you sure?" asked Yumi, also looking at the computer codes, but understanding none of them.
"Positive. I'm running another Super Scan to double-check, but the tower just . . . deactivated. All on its own."
"That's very strange," said Aelita.
"Do you think it's a trick?" asked Yumi, always considering the options.
"I don't see how it could be," Jeremie said, scratching his head absentmindedly.
Yumi thought for a moment or two, debating in her head. She then said, "Well then I guess we should go back to the school," she turned away from the computer screen. "Since there's no activated tower."
"You guys go ahead, I'm going to stay here and do a little research about this."
"But Jeremie, we have math next. Are you sure you want to miss that?" asked Aelita, a knowing smile in her eyes.
"Aelita, I-"
"Aelita's right, Jeremie. Come on, the Supercomputer's fine, Lyoko is fine, there's no activated tower. Maybe XANA just called off his attack. Maybe he saw a flaw in his plan." said Yumi.
"Yeah, I guess maybe you're right. . ."
"Come on," said Aelita, and pulled Jeremie by the hand over to the elevator.
"We should probably tell Odd and Ulrich there's no need to come anymore," said Yumi as she hit the elevator button to take them back up to the ground level.
Aelita nodded, took out her phone, and dialed.
Ulrich and Odd ran along the path, stepping on snapping twigs and leaves. They reached the small clearing and stopped running to catch their breath. Ulrich felt a gentle buzz in his right pocket. He pulled out his cell phone and put it up to his ear.
"Hello?" he asked.
"Ulrich, it's Aelita."
"Aelita? Why aren't you on Lyoko? Is the tower already deactivated?"
"Actually, yes," said Aelita. "But I didn't do anything. The tower deactivated by itself."
"It did? How?" asked Ulrich.
"What? What's she saying?" asked an impatient Odd.
"Ssh!" Ulrich said. "No, not you Aelita. . . Uh huh. . . And he's absolutely sure?. . . Ok. . . Right. Bye." Ulrich hung up the phone and turned to Odd.
"So? What's going on?" asked Odd.
"The tower deactivated by itself," said Ulrich as he turned around and started walking back toward the school.
"Huh?" said Odd in disbelief.
"Come on, buddy, I'll try to explain on the way."
Mollie wandered the school grounds aimlessly, looking down at the piece of paper clutched tightly in her hand.
Ok, so if I'm coming from the Science Building, the history classroom should be over. . . there? No wait, I think that's the Administration Building. . .
"I'm never going to find my way around here," she muttered to herself.
She walked past the school's North crossroads and saw kids relaxing and talking before their next class. She stopped and looked down at her map again. She heard multiple kids' conversations, but took interest in only the piece of paper that felt to her like a lifeboat with a gaping hole in it. However, amidst her circle-walking and confused muttering, she happened to catch some very interesting words coming from a group of five students standing only a few feet away from her.
"So the tower just deactivated on its own just like that? That's really weird."
"XANA's got to be up to something."
"My thoughts exactly."
Her curiosity suddenly becoming greater than her issue of being lost, Mollie looked up and over at the group of kids holding the conversation. She was surprised when she saw the back of a slightly familiar pink haired head. When she saw the rest of her friends, though, her mind went back to their science class not that long ago. She felt a little unsure about talking to them, but realized that Aelita was really her only option. After a little bit of contemplating, she felt brave (and desperate) enough to walk over to the group.
"Excuse me?" Mollie said, talking more to Aelita than anyone else.
Aelita turned around. "Oh, hi again," she said to Mollie and smiled. Mollie smiled back.
"Hi."
Odd looked around from behind Ulrich, stepped up to Mollie, and addressed Aelita. "Hey Aelita, you haven't introduced us to your new friend."
"Oh, that's right, I'm sorry. Everyone, this is Mollie. She moved into the room next to me, and we kind of bumped into each other this morning," she smiled again.
Aelita's friends' expressions were polite and friendly, and Mollie felt less nervous about talking to the unknown students.
The only other girl standing there gave a little wave and said, "Hi. I'm Yumi."
"I'm Jeremie."
"Ulrich."
"And I'm Odd!" said Odd, throwing his hands in the air with a big grin on his face. Mollie suppressed a giggle at that. She looked him over quickly and gave him a small and hesitant smile in return. If that's not a bold outfit. . . she thought.
"So, you're a new student here at Kadic?" asked the girl named Yumi.
"Yes," replied Mollie. "And I keep getting lost."
"That's all right, we'll help you out," said Aelita. "Where are you going?"
"Well, I have history next, then lunch, then gym," said Mollie, reading off her schedule.
"Well, the history room is over there," said Jeremie, pointing off in one direction. "And the cafeteria is over there." said Odd, pointing in the other direction.
"Of course Odd would be able to direct anyone to the cafeteria," said Yumi laughed. Mollie smiled and thanked them all. They said goodbye and went their separate ways.
Aelita's friends seem really nice. Mollie thought as she walked to her class. I was wrong to misjudge them earlier and think something weird was going on with them. She turned a corner and adjusted her books in her arms. I should get to know them better. . . But that Ulrich boy. . . He seemed kind of rude. The only thing he said the whole time was his name. She found her way to the history room and took a seat in the back. She set her things down and glanced out the window. But he was kind of cute.