"Excuse me. Can I please go to the nurse? I'm really dizzy," Naomi said. When the teacher said yes, Naomi started to stand up and then lost her balance and sat back down. "Odd, will you walk me there?" She asked me.

I looked to the teacher for permission and he waved me on, so I helped her up and out the door. When we got into the hallway I said, "Hey, are you okay?"

"Yep! I'm just fine." She said and smiled at me.

I was so confused so I asked, "Then why did you need to get out of class?"

"Well I'm not the one who needed to get out, am I?" She said.

"How did you know I needed to get out?" I said.

"After your phone vibrated, I could tell something was wrong." Then she stopped and looked at me. "Odd, I have a hunch that you guys don't just skateboard down there, do you?"

I lowered my head. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I don't understand everything, but I can tell that it's something just between you and your friends, and it's really important to you. I can respect that." She said.

"Wow. You must be like, the coolest girlfriend ever. But I'm tired of keeping this from you. You deserve answers." I said, and then I grabbed her hand and we ran towards the sewers.

When we got out of the elevator, Jeremy quickly said, "Great, you're here! Get down to the scan-" He stopped in his tracks and his eyes widened like a deer caught in headlights.

Before he could start criticizing me I cut him off. "I knew she wouldn't believe it was just a dream. To be honest, I didn't try that hard to convince her. But she found the factory fair and square, and she deserves to stay here."

I guess since Naomi was with me, he couldn't argue much. "Whatever. Just hurry up, they need your help."

I kissed Naomi on the cheek and left her up there with Jeremy. On Lyoko it was the pretty standard routine. Wipe out some monsters, deactivate tower, and go home. After we were all back in the lab, we explained everything to Naomi.

"So, it's kind of like one giant video game boss, that's trying to take over the world? Weird…" She said. Considering we ditched school all day and lied to our teacher, we decided to launch a Return to the Past.

Like the previous morning, I walked in to the room while Ulrich was getting dressed.

"Do you think she remembers?" I asked.

"I guess we'll see, right?" He said.

Before art started again, Naomi didn't say anything about what happened, and show any sign she remembered. About halfway through the lecture, I noticed her scribbling something on a piece of paper. Then she folded it up and slid it across the table to me. I opened it up and grinned. She drew the symbol of X.A.N.A and underneath wrote, "Am I crazy?" I met her eyes and shook my head no. She smiled and I held her hand until class was over.

Naomi was a lot of help in getting us out to go to Lyoko. She took some suspicions away from us, and made excuses to get us out of class. We trained her before letting her actually going into battle. Occasional short trips after class, during the weekends. Her experience with skateboarding made her pretty good on my overboard, until Jeremy could program her something of her own.

The first time she went into real battle… I was so nervous, but she really proved herself. Naomi was a great ally in battle, but she was also an amazing strategist. She could devise plans and battle strategies like an army general.

One time the plan went wrong. We were in the middle of battle and one of her ideas was very dangerous. She was going to distract one of the Krabs and slide of the edge, but grab a lower lying piece and confuse the monster. Everything went perfect, until X.A.N.A. managed to delete the edge and she fell. I dashed past the Krab, leaving his fate to Ulrich, and barely missed her fingers. I had to think fast, and I shot her quick to de-virtualize her. Aelita deactivated the tower as we dealt with the remaining monsters that X.A.N.A. conjured up. When we got out, I headed up to the lab.

"Oh man, sorry Naomi!" I said when I hugged her.

"What? Why? You saved my life! There's no way Jeremy couldn't materialized me before I hit the digital sea." She said.

"Yeah, but I just don't like having to, ya know, shoot you." I chuckled.

Naomi

Suddenly consumed with my Lyoko duties, my grades started to slip. They were all passing level, except world history. I tried my best to keep it up, but I couldn't do it. Not knowing what else to do, I went to the smartest guy I knew; Jeremy.

I knocked quietly on his door, since it was after hours and I was supposed to be in my room.

"Come in." He said.

I walked in and, like always, he was glued to his computer screen. I closed the door quietly.

"Jeremy." I said to get him to turn around.

"Hm? Oh, hey Naomi. What's up?" He twirled around in his chair.

"I need your help… but it's kind of embarrassing, so I'd appreciate you not telling anyone. Please?" I said, with my head lowered.

"Uh, yeah what's wrong?" He said confused.

"I'm failing History."

"Well that's not bad. Why do you need to keep it a secret?"

"You don't understand. My parents are going to pull me out of Kadic if I don't get my grade back up. They think my friends are affecting me."

"Oh man, that sucks. I'm sure we can help Naomi, it's no problem."

"No, Jeremy. Please don't tell any of the others. I don't want to worry them. But can you help me study or give me any tips?"

"Ok, Ok. I gotcha. No problem. Just come by anytime, I'm usually here. When that final comes around in two weeks, you'll ace it!"

"Thanks Jeremy, I really appreciate it! Good night."

"Sweet Dreams!"