I apologize profusely for having such a delay on this chapter. Right now, I'm going to get to the story, I will explain myself at the end...
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(Odd P.O.V.)
It's been nearly four months since Avery came to our school. It's been about three and a half since we finally got together. After a life changing experience, of course.
I had figured out that I liked Avery as more than a friend basically just a few days after she arrived. When I talked to her about it, I found out rather harshly that she didn't share the feeling.
I fell into a state of deep depression after that. I basically stopped eating, stopped sleeping. Eventually I keeled over from lack of food and I had to go to the hospital.
Afterwards, I went to therapy for about… a week. My therapist was nice, she understood I had a lot of things other than therapy that I would rather be doing. So she let me off with the agreement that I would come back if I felt the slightest bit of depression again.
I haven't returned except to say thank you.
Shortly afterwards (coughthatnightcough) Avery expressed her true feelings for me. The ones that we both shared.
My life hasn't been the same since.
I also found out that Avery is very skilled with computers. As in hacker-skilled. She is known internationally for her ability to crash any system, to destroy any virus.
"So Odd, that would make 'P' equal to…?" Mr. Johnson, my math teacher, says to me, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Um… 24?" I randomly guess. Mr. Johnson beams.
"Correct! Good to see you're finally paying attention." He says, moving on to the next problem, not noticing my jaw hit the floor. I glance around me, and I'm getting strange looks from all sides. Mostly looks of astonishment.
I got it right? I GOT IT RIGHT!
I glance at my best friend Ulrich, who is sitting next to me. His eyes are bugging out at me as well. He quickly pulls out a piece of scratch paper and scribbles something on it, sliding it over to me.
"Just guessed, didn't you?" It says. I quickly pull my so far unused pencil out of my backpack and scrawl my answer.
"You bet your ass I did." He sees it and claps his hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing. As soon as he's under control again, he scribbles his answer.
"Watch your mouth Odd. Avery won't be happy with you." I glare at him, that was a low blow.
Avery doesn't like swearing. From what she told me, she thinks that there's other… more appropriate ways to communicate what you're feeling. But she has swore before, she only does it when she feels extremely strongly about something.
She cussed on the night when we finally got together.
"Shut the hell up." I scrawl back. That's my standard answer whenever he says something like that.
The bell rings for class to get out, and everyone jumps up. I grab the piece of scratch paper back before Ulrich can finish his answer and crumple it up, smiling. He just glares at me. I toss the paper over my shoulder, like I do with most useless junk I have, but I cringe when I hear someone say "OW!"
I turn around to find Avery standing there, holding the paper ball in her hand. I wince again, but roll with it.
"Sorry about that, love." I say, quickly wrapping my arm around her slender waist. I gently kiss her on the cheek, walking along with her.
"Forgive me?" I ask when we exit the classroom. She just sighs and smiles.
"Of course. You just guessed on that answer, didn't you?" She asks, making me smile too.
"You bet I did." I say, refraining from using my previous answer with Ulrich for obvious reasons. "How did you know?" I ask.
"It was the same answer you guessed in Science this morning." She says and I laugh.
"I guess it was, wasn't it?"
"What is it with you and the number 24?" I just shrug as we reach the bench. We both sit down and wait for the rest of the gang to join up at our obvious meeting point. I feel Avery's arm snake it's way around my torso and she leans close to me. Giving me a quick kiss on the cheek, she lays her head on my shoulder. I lean my cheek against her head, holding her tight to me as well.
"What was that for?" I ask quietly. She just snuggles in closer.
"For this morning." She whispers. I shudder involuntarily. She looks up at me concerned.
"What is it?"
"Just thinking… about what would have happened to you if I hadn't managed to get there first. It was a lucky miss." I say. She nods, but then looks thoughtful.
"What's on your mind?" I ask.
"Hmmm… this is for remembering how to do what I asked." She says kissing me on the cheek. I hug her lightly, showing her I liked it.
"Mmm… and this is for doing it." She says, leaning over and kissing me full on the lips. No matter how many times we've done this, it always makes my heart beat faster, if I could talk I would be stammering, and I feel nervous again.
I don't know how long we were like that, but it felt like only the briefest of instants.
"Ahem," Ulrich says, "Are we interrupting something?" I break away reluctantly to look at him.
"No, would you like to join in?" I say smiling. I hear Avery say my name loudly and I duck, letting her hand fly harmlessly over my head instead of connecting soundly with it.
I quickly sit back up and put my arm around her waist, pinning her arm in front of her so she can't hit me again.
She looks at me and pouts her lips. I just lean in and kiss her gently. I pull away quickly and smile.
"You know you love me." I say, still smiling. She sighs and rests her head on my shoulder.
"I know." I rest my head on top of hers, closing my eyes. I see a flash of light and snap open my eyes. There's Jeremie standing there, his camera-phone open and pointing at us. Aelita is standing next to him, smiling at the picture he just took.
"Wow Odd, you two make a cute picture." She says, but I just shrug.
"Cute picture with a cute girl in it." I say.
"Odd, I am totally glaring at you right now. You just can't tell." Avery says, making me smile.
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"So… would you two mind explaining why the government came into science this morning?" Ulrich asks later that night. It's after dinner, and we're all in Jeremie's room. Avery flinches and doesn't answer, so I decide to answer for her.
"Um… somehow they tracked her here."
"For what?"
"Does the alias 'Hacker Lucadious' ring a bell?" Ulrich gets a blank look on his face.
"Oh. Yeah. So what? It's not like she does anything illegal… right?"
"Does crashing the government's computer systems qualify as illegal?"
"I thought that was the United State's systems. Not France's." Avery sighs and sits up from the position she was in (lying on my lap).
"Last I checked, there was a 20 million dollar reward for either bringing me in or stopping me…" I watch in amusement as Ulrich's… and to mention it, everyone else's eyes bug out.
"Yeah, I did that when she told me too." I say in amusement.
"Wha… why don't you just turn yourself in? Or stop yourself, then you can get all that money!" Avery just shrugs.
"I don't need money. I haven't really done anything wrong. The government had a backup system that I knew of, so I didn't really hurt them in any way. Besides, I like what I do. And what would I do with 20 million dollars?"
"But… but…"
"And besides, do you think they would believe me if I said I was a superhacker? Me, a 15 year old girl?"
"Good point…"
"So, as far as I can tell, somehow the French government tracked me here, and confiscated my laptop so they could find out if it was me. If it was, they would get the 20 million dollar reward."
"So what are you going to do? You have all that stuff on your laptop, they'll figure out it was you!" Avery stays silent, so I answer for her again.
"No they won't. When I left, I got to Avery's dorm before she did. I pulled out her laptop and initiated a special program she created, the PURGE program. It gets rid of everything incriminating against her. They won't find a thing, because now Avery's laptop looks like, and is, a normal teenage laptop."
"Wow, that was pretty smart."
"But there's a problem." Avery says quietly. "I made it in about 15 minutes. It's finished, but more or less just a prototype. I'm not sure if it actually got rid of absolutely everything."
"Don't worry, it did. I have faith." I say, hugging her slightly.
"Thanks Odd." She says quietly.
"So, now what?" Avery once again makes no move to answer.
"They search her laptop, see if they can find anything. When they don't, they give it back, say they're sorry, and leave us for good."
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Not very exciting, but it does explain the whole government thing.
Anyways, I'm sorry for taking so long. It's taken me 20 days to update this story, and I believe I promised quick updates. I have had massive writer's block these last couple weeks... and as soon as I got over it, I got grounded from the computer for skipping church. I hate being grounded, it sucks major ass.
So, I'm working hard on the third chapter, it will be done soon. I promise.
Please leave a review... it would make me feel a lot better to know I didn't waste a helluva lot of time on this story.