Post-production note: since season 2 hadn't come out by the time this was written, it and all the others were based completely on what I learned in season 1.

Bear in mind that X.A.N.A. hasn't ceased his regular attacks on them. There were two assaults that are not recorded between New Era and this one. Since the Towers were easily picked up by Jeremy, he has pretty much forgotten about the problem w/ locating the one when the Roachster Pawn appeared and has let his guard down since then.

Now to sum up: The newest member of the Code: Lyoko gang has her eye on Odd and his is on her, but they just won't get together. Also, X.A.N.A. isn't finished with the gang and has something planned similar to what he attempted last time, and now Jeremy is hearing things…

7-1: Expectations

(((-1-)))

Janika slowly crept up the mountainside path. It was dim here and the mist made visibility all that much worse. A single stone shifted ahead on the path and the girl went rigid. He was close, hiding. But she was a born predator.

With a lunge, she crossed a gap and converged on her prey…only he wasn't there! The stone had been a decoy! He flung himself out of the shadow of a boulder behind the cheetah-girl and was about to tackle her when she moved. He missed her entirely as a blur of orange darted to the side and ricocheted off the steep mountainside. She slammed him to the ground and they rolled to a stop, Odd trapped beneath her.

"Pinned ya!" Janika crowed triumphantly. She bounded to her feet and started doing a victory dance. "Oh yeah, I'm bad! Uh huh uh huh! Four times in one day, Odd!"

The purple panther dusted himself off as he stood up. "That still leaves me with six wins today," he retorted with a laugh.

"So what? I beat Yumi six times yesterday."

"Oh? And what about Ulrich?"

"You know as well I do that it's impossible to do much more than find him. He's just too quick. Even for a cheetah," she admitted reluctantly.

Aelita came out of her hiding place. "That's ten games. It's almost seven o'clock by your standards. You should probably be getting back to school. I have to get to work locating the lost Tower anyway."

She sighed tiredly, remembering the Tower X.A.N.A. had activated and deactivated after making a change, which made it almost impossible for her to find and repair. It usually took Aelita all night and often part of the day as well to fully analyze a single Tower. Any information she might have gleaned to help herself and Jeremy with their work was lost in the attempt to accomplish her task both thoroughly and briefly.

"Okay, okay. We'll get out of your hair. Jeremy, are you gonna devirtualize us?"

"We're running kind of slow today," he replied out of the air, "so it could take a couple minutes. I need to reconfigure some formulas for Aelita to help her out and then I'll get you guys back home. Just find a way to entertain yourselves while I'm busy."

As the pink-haired girl left, the two friends chatted sociably. Or at least they meant to. The atmosphere was surprisingly rigid and neither one quite knew what to say.

"So…" Odd said after a few moments of undisturbed silence. "Anything new in the girls' dorms?"

"We have new showerheads."

"Really? Wow, that's great. Must be exciting."

"So…" she said after a little more stillness. "How about the guys' dorms?"

"There was a pillow fight the other night. Jim got socked in the face when he tried to break it up and then he joined in. He didn't report it, but he made us clean up all the feathers."

Janika smiled halfheartedly. "I'm happy for him. He's living a little. So…d-did you hear about the—er—dance tomorrow night?"

"Uh—yeah. I was gonna go with the gang. You coming?"

"I guess so." She fingered the five pairs of stars and the two larger shurikens at her belt. "Were you going to invite your friend from that other school? Samantha or whoever?"

Odd shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know."

"Oh, well…" She edged a bit closer. If only she could sum up enough courage…

Her tail curled around his suddenly and he nearly jumped out of his skin! Before he could say a word, his body vanished and she was by herself on the mountainside. A minute later she was in the scanner room. Alone. The lift was in use.

"…Maybe you'd like to go with me?" she whispered sadly to herself.

(V)

The next day after classes were over, Millie was trying desperately to juggle three colored balls and ended up dropping them all. She tried it again, but had the same result. Odd took them and expertly showed her how to do it.

"See? It's easy. All you have to do is find your rhythm."

She attempted once more and they ended up on the ground again. A fit of laughter burst out from the other side of the schoolyard and both kids cringed visibly.

"Awww! Is your big bwother twying to teach you a cwute widdle twick?" Sissy the Nuisance wondered in a baby's lisp. "As if a nut like him could teach you anything. If he gave a rooster crowing lessons, it would end up barking."

Millie blushed and gathered up the little balls. "I was just playing," she muttered dismally.

"Well, why don't you go 'play' with your little teddy bear, then? You might be good at that." Sissy flipped her hair over her shoulder and cast annoyed glances at her two dorky cronies who laughed after a delayed moment.

Odd spoke up cheerfully, "Why don't you go play Chicken on the railroad tracks, Sissy? You might be good at that. You might even be able to make a train stop with a face like yours."

The black-haired girl's knuckles cracked and she ground her teeth together so hard that he could hear them. "You'd probably make a good antenna for my TV, weirdo."

"At least I wouldn't win a gold medal in the Obnoxious Olympics. And the name is 'Odd,' not 'weirdo.' Get that right if nothing else. C'mon, Millie. Let's leave Sissy to clean her shoes by herself. Sometimes a girl needs privacy."

"Huh?" She finally looked down and realized what she was standing in. "Grrrrr! Next time I see your dog it's going to be dead, you freaky…freak!"

They found a quiet place on the other side of the dorms where Odd showed her how to bounce a hackeysack with her foot. She was just getting the hang of it when Ulrich appeared.

"Hey Odd, is there a reason Sissy was screaming about Kiwi earlier? At least that's what I think she meant by 'four-legged devil'."

"Don't worry about her. She'll be fine after she buys another pair of shoes. She needs some, anyway. She always dresses in the same thing every single day. Hmmm…so do I, now that I think of it. That's weird, you know?"

Ulrich shook his head. "Not really. I wear the same thing every day too."

The blonde shrugged. "Eh, oh well. Is something wrong?"

"Nope. Janika's looking for you again."

"I saw her twenty minutes ago in class! What does she want with me?" There was suddenly a strange lilt in his speech, as if he knew the answer but didn't want anyone to know he knew.

Ulrich shrugged. "I dunno. She said she'd be waiting for you over by the park. I think it's something about the homework in Chemistry. For some reason she thinks you'll be able to help her." He rolled his eyes skeptically.

(V)

X.A.N.A. completed his calculations and connected through the hidden secondary link to Earth. It was time to release his newest creation. Perhaps this one would be more powerful and last longer than the previous…

I would like to extend my thanks to everyone who reviewed last time and encouraged me to continue w/ this new angle. It may be strange and foreign, but you'll get used to it.