Have I mentioned I'm really bad at updating? Well it's only going to get worse. My college starts back Wednesday and bye bye life. So I know this chapter is short but I wanted to get it out before Wednesday.

Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko

After a long first week in the Hermitage, the gang was slowly getting settled. Aelita gave them money and helped them fix up their rooms. And now that the rooms were finished, Aelita wanted them all to start spending more time together. She decided it was time for a much needed movie marathon. She had it all planned; she bought everyone's favorite snacks and had everyone's favorite movies. Now she just needed everyone else.

"So I thought about maybe doing something before school starts," Aelita started out as they sat down to eat dinner one night.

"Like what?" Odd mumbled with food stuffed in his mouth.

"I thought maybe we could do a movie marathon like we use to do."

"Do you have Texas Chainsaw Massacre?" Odd pleaded finally having swallowed his food.

"Yep."

"The original?"

"Yes, Odd."

"I'm in!" Odd yelled, throwing his hands up in the air.

"What about you? Ulrich? Yumi? Jeremy?" Aelita questioned.

"Sounds fun. I haven't had a movie marathon since you left," Yumi agreed.

"Yeah, let's do it," Ulrich answered.

Jeremy sat there, picking at his food. No. There's no way he was going to do this. He agreed to live with them. Not become friends with them again. Not after what they did to him.

"Jeremy?" Aelita's voice brought him out of his thoughts. "Are you in?"

"I actually have to head to University and talk with the Honors Program. Maybe next time, Aelita," Jeremy turned down.

Aelita sighed in disappointment but nodded in understanding. It will just be four of them instead of five but it was a start.

Aelita watched as Jeremy got up, grabbed his backpack and left without waving. She sighed then tried to smile to her friends.

"Don't worry, princess, Einstein will come around," Odd assured her, putting his arm around her shoulder.

"When? It's been a week."

"You did leave for four years," Odd pointed out.

"Odd!" Yumi scolded.

"No, Yumi, I deserved that," Aelita admitted. "I did leave and it hurt Jeremy, more than I thought. And if I hurt any of you, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to."

"We understand, Aelita. You did what you had to. Jeremy will understand soon enough," Yumi went over and comforted Aelita.

"Come on, let's start that movie marathon," Ulrich suggested, trying to defuse the tension.

Jeremy entered the library on campus, going upstairs to a private study room. Vivien Levet sat at the table, scrolling through something on her tablet. Her curly auburn hair was pulled up in a ponytail with a pencil stuck behind her ear. Her glasses were sliding down as she continued to scroll.

"Viv?"

Vivien looked up and smiled, pushing up her glasses. "Hey, you made it."

"Told you I would. Aelita wanted to have a movie marathon but I told her I had a meeting with the Honors Program," Jeremy answered, taking off his backpack and sitting down next to her.

"Why did you lie to her? Why don't you just tell her the truth?" Vivien shook her head and crossed her arms.

"You know why."

"You need to get over this, Jeremy. It isn't healthy."

Jeremy just smiled at her, familiar with where this conversation was heading. "Let's not discuss this, Viv. We haven't seen in each other in over a week."

"That's so tragic," Vivien rolled her eyes at him but leaned in closer to kiss him.

Yumi sat up and stretched as the ending credits of Pirates of the Caribbean started rolling. She dusted the popcorn off her, gathered all her trash,and stood up. "As much fun as this has been, it's getting late."

Aelita glanced at her phone and saw it was 2:00 o'clock in the morning. "Oh, wow. It is late and Jeremy's still not back?"

"Let me text him and ask where he's at," Ulrich offered, standing up and pulling his phone out of his pocket. He sent a quick text then started helping Yumi with the trash.

"This isn't like him or at least it wasn't," Aelita worried as she went to turn off the movie.

"Princess, don't worry so much. You'll get wrinkles." Odd poked her in the forehead to make her giggle.

Ulrich stopped what he was doing when his phone went off with a text from Jeremy. "Jeremy said he's on his way now but don't wait up for him."

"He doesn't have to tell me twice," Odd yawned, stretching his arms over his head.

After the four cleaned up after themselves, they trudged upstairs and to bed. Aelita laid in bed for the longest, thinking about Jeremy and if he was back yet. Finally she heard footsteps going down the hallway and the door opening. Aelita rolled over and fell asleep.

"Daddy, what are you doing? DADDY!"

The pink ball that was her father exploded into pieces as Aelita screamed.

"DADDY, NO!"

The scene shifted to Aelita's mother on the screen in the Cortex. She paid no attention to Aelita.

"Momma! It's me, Aelita!"

Her mother continued working, giving no indication that she heard her daughter. Suddenly Tyron appeared, grabbing her mother.

"You and your friends leave me alone or you will never see your mother again!" Tyron threatened.

"No! Momma!"

"Three. Two. One."

"NO!" Aelita screamed, jerking awake.

The door was jerked opened and Odd stood on the other side, looked frazzled and worried. "Aelita, are you okay? I heard you screaming?"

Aelita nodded her heard as she tried to catch her breath. "Yeah, Odd, I'm okay. It was just a nightmare."

"XANA?"

"Actually it was my parents. I watched my father die again and Tyron hold my mother captive. It happens every night. I watch it over and over again," Aelita cried.

Odd came over and sat beside her, putting his arm over her shoulder. "You've been through a lot, Aelita, more than any of us. Nightmares are your brain's way of dealing with it."

"When did you get so smart?" Aelita hiccupped, wiping the tears away.

"I have nightmares too. The only way I could accept them was learn more about them," Odd confessed, squeezing her shoulder.

"Thanks, Odd."

He smiled at her, squeezing her shoulder one last time then stood up. "Get some sleep, princess." He left the room, closing the door behind him and went back to his room.

He went all out on his room when they decorated it. One wall was a half corkboard and half white board. On the white board were all his current film ideas in a jumbled mess while the cork board had his research pinned up. A desk sat in front of the white board half of the wall. The rest of the walls were painted black and were covered in posters from popular movies and even some of his movies. His bedspread had all types of equipment including a camera, microphone. The two pillows had a screen-print of a movie clapper. All of his movie equipment was in unorganized in a corner of the room.

He sat down at his desk where his laptop was open to a document of his newest script. He popped his knuckles then went back to work, knowing sleep wasn't happening tonight.

Ulrich sat at his desk, with his laptop on and headphones in, watching the latest episode of Games of Thrones. After the movie marathon, he tried to go to sleep, he really did but flashes of Yumi falling into the digital sea filled his eyesight. He gave up after that and just started watching his current favorite TV show.

Ulrich leaned back, trying to get comfortable. He paused the episode and looked at his bed. His room was very simple compared to Odd's. It was painted a dark grey with white furniture. The bed was on the right with a black comfortable. On the wall next to the bed was a desk. Right next to the desk was a blue cabinet that. A bookcase was against the wall across from the bed. A white rug finished off the room. He sighed and decided to give up sitting at his desk and move to his bed. If he was going to stay up the rest of the night, he might as well be comfortable.

With his headphones in, he didn't hear Yumi screaming from another nightmare in the next room.

Yumi tried to get her breathing under control. It was always the same dream; XANA controlled William throwing her friends into the digital sea. She laid back down looking at her ceiling, hoping to fall back asleep. After thirty minutes of tossing and turning, she gave up and looked around her room.

Her room was painted white with one wall painted black. Against the black wall was a bookcase painted black. Her bed was against a white wall with a purple flower design above it. The bed had a white comfortable with a purple and black blanket lying across the middle of the bed. Two black nightstands sat on either side of the bed, one had a white laptop on it and the other had several pictures on it. Across from the bed was a black desk where Yumi's laptop laid on. A purple rug lay on the floor to finish off the room.

Yumi crawled off the bed and grabbed her laptop from her desk. She turned it on and pulled up the latest episode of Attack on Titan. Why did she ever let her brother get her into this show? But it was good to watch on nights like these when she couldn't go back to sleep.

Downstairs, Jeremy was up as well, typing away on one of his computers. Jeremy's room was very techy. At least that's what Odd called it. It was painted white with a blue striped running around the top of the walls. There were long desk running around two of the walls. The desk was for of all kinds of computer equipment and several computers. His bed was against the one of remaining walls with a blue, gray and white striped bedspread. Two night stands sat on either side of his bed, holding all his school books. A blue cabinet and dresser were against the remaining wall by the door.

Jeremy didn't have nightmares like the others. On occasion, he would dream he was attacked by one of XANA's specters or losing Aelita but he was able to shake them off. They didn't constantly haunt him. Vivien thought it was because he never went onto Lyoko and didn't face the things the others did.

Jeremy took off his glasses and wiped his eyes. He rolled his neck, popped his fingers then went back to his program. He couldn't stop now when he was so close. He has been working with Vivien on this for over a year now. If it was right, both of them would be famous. But that was a big if. He worked for several more minutes until his eyes just couldn't focus anymore. It was then he decided to retire to bed and continue in the morning.

That next morning, everyone was up really early for going to bed at such a late time. Aelita was up and in the kitchen fixing breakfast at 7:00, Ulrich coming in a few minutes later and starting the coffee. By 7:30, Yumi, Odd and Jeremy had joined them sitting at the island, each of them with a cup of coffee.

"Last night was fun, too bad you missed it, Einstein," Odd stated.

"It was. We should do something today," Yumi suggested.

"I know this isn't something fun but I do have to go grocery shopping and I wouldn't mind some company," Aelita remarked.

"Oh, yes food! Then we can go to this new bakery that opened up close to here!" Odd exclaimed.

"Better than nothing I guess," Ulrich shrugged. Yumi nodded in agreement. "What about you, Einstein?"

"I have to go back to Uni today. More Honors stuff to do. Maybe tonight?"

Aelita sighed but nodded. "Yeah, tonight."

Vivien was in the same study room as the night before. Her hair was in two low pigtails with her glasses pushed up on top of her head. She was squinting at her computer screen and was writing on a notebook beside the computer.

"That won't help your eye sight, Viv," Jeremy told her, walking into the room.

Vivien looked up, blinking as she tried to focus on him. She pulled her glasses down, pulling some hair out of her pigtails and putting them back on. "Hey, I didn't expect you until later."

"Aelita wanted to go grocery shopping and everyone else went with her." Jeremy rolled his eyes and joined her.

"Have you talked to them yet?" She asked.

"No and why should I?"

Vivien sighed. Here we go again she thought. "Jeremy, they were your friends. Your best friends at that. No matter what you say, I know you missed them. You forget that I know you, Jeremy."

Jeremy shook his head. "I really don't want to talk about this right now. I have to show you what I worked on last night."

Vivien sighed once more as he changed the subject again but nodded and looked at his work.

"Do you think I'll need notebooks or binders and paper?" Odd asked, looking at the school supplies.

Ulrich groaned and leaned his head against the buggy. Odd has been debating on what to get for university for about ten minutes now. Aelita and Yumi ran off to the clothes section while Ulrich was stuck with Odd. "Odd, just pick one."

"Okay, fine." Odd threw several notebooks into the buggy that was already full of food.

"Don't throw it on top of the food, Odd." Ulrich moved the notebooks to where they were in the front. "You better be paying for those. You are not making Aelita pay for them."

"Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Odd muttered. "No, I'm not making her pay for it."

"Sorry, I just didn't sleep well last night. I should've had another cup of coffee," Ulrich apologized. "Come on, let's go find the girls."

The two made their way over to the clothes section, stopping every now and then for random stuff.

"So, what do you think's up with Jeremy?" Odd wondered.

"What do you mean? He's at university doing honor stuff."

"You really think that?"

"You don't?" Ulrich looked at him surprised. "What do you think he's doing?"

"I don't know. All I know is he's been a little off," Odd pointed out.

"Well yeah, it has been four years, Odd. We're all different."

"I don't mean different, I mean off. The dude keeps blowing Aelita off. When have you ever known Jeremy blowing Aelita off?" Odd questioned.

"Tons of times. Remember Laura? Remember the program to destroy XANA? That's Jeremy. He's always blowing people off," Ulrich reminded him.

"Yeah but he's never been like this. He's so angry and at what?"

"Odd, I think you're just seeing things that aren't there. He's the same old Jeremy I remember."

"Whatever you say, old buddy." Odd gave up on convincing Ulrich but he knew something was off with Jeremy and he was determined to find out what.

What's up with Jeremy? Is Odd right about him or is he just seeing things that don't exist? And what do you think of Vivien? Do you like her? And what is she and Jeremy working on? Those nightmares just won't leave the gang alone. Will they catch a break? I love to hear from you guys. Let me know how I'm doing.