Clementine was sitting beside Ulrich in the science lab. She was spinning a pencil around her fingers as she watched the front of the room, where an engineer worker stood. He was talking to the class about not only his job at the nuclear power plant, but about the plant itself and how it ran.

The maroon haired girl sat behind a video recorder, her eyes gazing between the man and the video from time to time, making sure the device was doing its job. It was vital that she was able to see and hear everything, as her learning abilities were a little difficult. It wasn't that she was disabled, but that her mind didn't work as fast as others. Her eyes had to be able to see what she was hearing or she had to read it, and in this case there were no written words. She was only left with her ability to record the lesson and come back to it later to take notes, as the man was speeding through it like a piece of cake.

She looked over at Ulrich, who was gazing out the window. He watched a flock of birds go by before he turned his attention back to the classroom. He looked at Clementine and blushed a bit, having seen that she had been watching him for who knew how long.

It wasn't long, however, luckily for her. She blushed bright pink and smiled a bit. She turned her head back as she heard their dear friend Jeremy speak up. But not only her attention was diverted to her genius friend, but everyone's was.

Their teacher, Mrs. Hertz, gave him the clearance to go on and ask his question, since he had such a good mind and was passing not only her class, but all of his classes. She expected a good, thoughtful question from him.

Jeremy stood to pose his question. "I'd like to know if an atomic process exists for fusing virtual particles and materializing them into the real world," he spoke clearly. His friends looked at him knowingly.

The engineer did not look pleased with this, a frown prominent on his face. He pushed up his glasses. "Son, that is in the realm of science fiction. Sorry," he told him with a straight face.

Mrs. Hertz walked forward, looking somewhat embarrassed. "Jeremy is an excellent student, but he's a bit of a dreamer," she explained, using that as her excuse to continue on. This only prompted the class to laugh at the genius.

Jeremy took his seat.

Clementine huffed and stopped her crossed her arms and slouched onto the lab table. She didn't like the taunting of her friend, and she so desperately wanted to do something about it, but her father had spoken to her about how she handles situations. She had a certain way of handling things and apparently other students didn't like it.

Suddenly, the projector cut off and the image the engineer had been using was gone. Mrs. Herts walked over to the device and hit a few buttons, but nothing worked.

"Certainly nothing serious. Just a blown fuse, that's all," she deduced.

Jeremy looked over to his friends. Odd shrugged, as he didn't know what to make of the small situation. Then the bell rang.

The friends all stood up and exited the building. Clementine hurried over to the front of their friend group and threw an arm around the blonde genius, smiling at him. "Don't take his words to heart, Jer. He just doesn't have the capability to understand that such a great mind discovered something as amazing as virtual materialization."

Jeremy looked at her and smiled a bit. "I suppose he couldn't have understood anyway, since we're the only ones who know about Aelita," he concluded. She nodded and let go.

"Besides, who needs a nuclear bozo like him anyway?" she said with a chuckle. "As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing nuclear about bringing Princess into the real world, so there's nothing to worry about, right?"

"That's where you're wrong, Clem, but that's alright, since the entire process of devirtualization is a complex concept," he said to her and walked out of the building.

She followed him, jumping from the top step over the two stairs that led to the ground. She landed and chuckled. She waved to Yumi, who had been waiting for the four of them since she didn't have the same class.

Sissi came out of the building and stopped. She looked over at Yumi and stared at her. She then walked away when Yumi turned her head. She smirked as she walked.

Yumi looked at her friends as they made their way over. She smiled a bit.

"Odd," a voice called. The five's attentions were turned to the principal walking their way. "I've thought it over and I've decided you can form your group, the, um, the Foxtrot Fanatics."

"Yes!" Odd cheered.

"It's the Pop Rock Progressives, sir," Yumi corrected him with a polite smile.

Mr. Delmas nodded. "But it must be open for anyone to play, is that clear?" he asked. He looked at his daughter and smiled at her. She smiled back happily.

"No problemo, sir," Odd told him. Mr. Delmas nodded, pleased, and then took leave.

Ulrich looked at Clementine. "How'd you convince him?" he asked her, knowing that she had to have helped at least a little bit into the decision making.

"I didn't have to say much," she said and shrugged. She started twirling some of her dyed hair around her finger. "I'm quite the music lover."

Yumi and Odd chuckled, but soon all diverted their attention to Odd, who was letting out his excitement and screaming to the world about the God of Rock and Roll. Clementine had to roll her eyes with a chuckle.

"Hey, come on, if we step on it, we can photocopy the leaflets before lunch," he said, standing to his feet. He looked at Jeremy, who would be the one to help him print out the handouts.

"You know me, I'm not one for rock," he said, putting his hands up. "Besides, I want to check out that outage." He then took his leave.

"Okay, see you later, Jeremy," Yumi called after him.

"I'll help you, Odd," Clementine told him. This drew a smile on his face. "I can run and make them myself, if you have one made up."

Odd clapped his hands together. "It's in my room," he told her.


Odd was walking around the cafeteria, announcing what was going on. He had a big stack of papers in his arm, the leaflets. He was handing them out to anyone that wanted one, and even to people who didn't want it. He was shouting about how the band needed a drummer and he was happy to see the interest some people had in the opening.

Clementine was watching him from her seat at one of the far tables. She shook her head and looked up at Ulrich, who was pushing his plate away in disgust.

"Oh, come on, Ulrich, they aren't that bad," she told him as she put a brussel sprout into her mouth.

"Well, you can happily take mine," he told her. She smiled, but shook her head.

"I'm fine with what I have," she told him. She took a sip of her water.

She pushed her greens around her plate a bit before looking up again. She saw Odd standing in front of Nicolas, Sissi's dear follower and friend. He held his hand out for a leaflet, but Odd smirked and turned away.


Clementine was walking towards the gym, where her friends were holding their drummer auditions. She told them that she would stop by after she wrote out her notes for her classes, which usually didn't take too long. She was excited to see who all would show up for the band anyway.

She was just about to open the door to the gym when she heard someone call out her name. She turned to see Jeremy running toward her.

"What's the matter, Jeremy?" she asked as he came to a halt before her. She placed a hand on his arm encase she'd have to catch him.

"XANA," he said simply and looked at his friend. "I'm almost sure that he's behind this energy deficiency."

"That's really weird. Why would he need to take energy from the school?" she asked as she pushed open the door to the gym.

"I don't know, but we need to let the others know," he said, following her into the gym. He was out of breath and huffing and puffing. He wiped his forehead of sweat. There was a reason Jeremy wasn't an athlete.

"What's going on?" Yumi asked as she and the guys looked to their friends.

Clementine stood behind a chair as Jeremy sat in it. She leaned against it when he sat. "Einstein has the idea that XANA is draining the school of its power."

"The currents are cutting out all over the school, and the pylon outside is way over the voltage limit," Jeremy explained. He was worried, and his voice expressed it. "It could explode."

"But why would XANA do that?" Ulrich asked.

"You're guess is as good as mine," the blonde genius said.

The door opened and in walked Sissi, Nicholas and Herb in toe behind her. She came in with a taunt, getting into her father's say about everyone being able to audition. She had a smug tone to her voice as she was having too much fun with the idea of bugging them.

"Okay, guys, I'm off," Jeremy said. He had plans to sort everything out.

Clementine looked at him, then nodded to the others. "I'll join him," she said, following after her friend. She knew when she could be of any assistance to him. She also didn't want to stay and be nagged by her sister, whom she also couldn't call out for her actions - not unless she wanted trouble.