"Well of course it's not really me. I'm just an image. I've been trapped here forever by XANA."

Franz's words echoed in Jeremie's head. Was it really Franz Hopper who he had been talking to? Certainly Aelita thought so, but he knew that was only because she wanted it to be true. There was no evidence to confirm that the strange dream he had was actually real; he only knew that it had not been XANA-induced. How could I bring him back, if he's out there? Jeremie thought.

"Hello? Earth to the big fat cheesehead. Come in, big fat cheesehead."

"Huh?" Jeremie jerked up to find that Aelita was standing behind his desk chair.

"Whatcha thinking about, Jeremie?"

"Uh...you, silly," he said with a big grin on his face as he blushed. In a sense, it was actually true and not a total fib.

Aelita's heart melted. Those eyes, and that smile...they couldn't possibly belong to her. But they did. She was blessed to be able to spend eternity with him...

As flattered as she was, she comically chimed in with, "Well, you were thinking about me so much, you forgot that I asked you to take the trash out." She stuck out her tongue at him.

"Oh, right," he said as he blushed more. She laughed as he left to complete his chores.

Lately, Aelita had noticed that he'd been spending more and more time on the computer. Deciding to investigate, she sat in his swivel chair. She noticed right away that he was remotely connected to the supercomputer, which was weird, but she was even more surprised to notice that the code he was working with was unfamiliar to her. He appeared to be searching for something on the network. But what?

Just then, she received a text from Jeremie.

GOING OUT, BRB

Well, at least it gives me more time to look at this code, she thought.

Jeremie had just closed the garbage can lid when it hit him.

"Ugh!" he said out loud. "I've been so busy, I forgot today is Odd's birthday!"

Sending a quick text to Aelita, he jumped into the car and started it up. He could call Odd, but he'd much rather see him in person.

Before long, a large storefront came into view. Large neon letters spelled out "KIWI'S MUSIC EMPORIUM" while a waving animatronic image of Kiwi flanked the letters' left.

Jeremie rushed out of the car and headed inside.