Alice opened her eyes. She saw Logan sitting in front of her. She saw Landon sitting there too. She felt her heart pounding in her chest. She'd had a nightmare.
"What time is it?" she asked nonchalantly trying to act like nothing had happened.
"It's five o'clock in the morning" Logan replied as he rubbed his eyes and smoothed his hair.
"I'm sorry" she answered "I'm just not used to this place and--"
"It's no problem" Landon answered, as instinct, he kind of liked her more and more "I have to get ready to go to work anyway" he got up from his chair and walked to the bathroom. He shut the door.
"Are you alright?" Logan asked once they heard the shower running.
" Yeah" Alice lied as she tried to stop her heart from pounding so loud in her ears.
"What was your nightmare?" he asked hoping she would tell him so he could help her get over it. He remembered when he was younger how she would always have nightmares and he would always wake up to hear her screams.
"I dreamed about that night when you attacked me and we, I mean the four of us, ended up here. It didn't happen the same though. Instead of killing me on Lyoko X.A.N.A. decided to kill me on earth with a gun. You were the one holding the gun to my head. You shot and that was when I woke up." She suddenly started to weep over his shoulder. "It was so scary!" she sobbed incoherently.
"Well" Logan answered, "I have something that just might cheer you up." He got up and went to his room. When he came back he had a toy gnome in his hand.
"Mr. Puck!" Alice gasped as she smiled and took the toy doll and cuddled it like a five year old. "Thank you Logan." She replied, "I thought he was lost."
"After I thought you were gone I went to your room. They were removing your things from your room and I snuck in and took Mr. Puck before they could throw him away." Logan told her as he sat back down in the chair.
"Thank you very much, Logan" Alice answered as she set Mr. Puck on her pillow and hugged Logan.
He smiled and remembered how she'd hugged him so many times before when he was younger. He'd waited so long for something to come, for something special to help to kill X.A.N.A. to remove him from his evil throne of power. He never thought she would hug him again.
"Hey Logan" Landon started as he walked out of the bathroom in his boxers and drying his hair with the towel "I'm going to take the good car today."
"That's alright" Logan answered, "I'm probably not going anywhere today anyway."
Landon walked into his room and got dressed. When he came out of his room he grabbed the car keys and left.
Once Landon left Logan and Alice went back to sleep. Logan dreamed of science and programming and Alice dreamed of her four friends… Odd with his quirkiness, Ulrich with his smoothness, Yumi with her knowledge of everything that came with the years and Jeremy with his supreme knowledge of computers and electronics and his smoothness with girls that never existed.
"What have you been up to?" she heard Jeremy's voice ask as she slept.
"Not much" she heard Ulrich's voice answer but it seemed far away. "We just appeared here when I keyed in the wrong sequence to save your girlfriend from death."
"She's not my girlfriend, she never was, and she never will be even if you do go back to when we were younger. She wouldn't want to go out with me when she can go out with Tyron Anderson." Jeremy told them
"She never wanted to go out with Tyron anyway" Yumi's voice entered in "just like I never wanted to go out with William".
"Wait…" Ulrich started, confused "you never wanted to go out with William?"
"No, I didn't" Yumi answered as it sounded like she kissed him on the lips.
Aelita opened her eyes. She was lying halfway off of the couch. She removed the blankets and walked to the kitchen. She still heard the voices of her friends. It was like they were sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast just talking like normal.
When Aelita reached the doorway to the kitchen she saw the three of them sitting around the small table.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" Aelita asked as she leaned against the edge of the door.
"Well you were just so cute while you slept" Jeremy answered "and it seemed like you needed your sleep."
"So when did you two get here?" Aelita asked
"Early this morning" Ulrich answered "through a tunnel in the bedroom. We nearly scared Jeremy silly."
"Wow!" Aelita answered "Do I smell pancakes?" the smell of soft buttery pancakes had entered her nose when she walked over to the kitchen.
"Yeah" Jeremy answered, "I made them this morning"
Aelita pulled up a chair and sat between Ulrich and Yumi and across from Jeremy. Jeremy handed her the plate and a fork. Once she started to eat she was in heaven. The pancakes were delicious.
"What's happened since we last saw you?" Jeremy asked as he started on his second pancake. He had three left.
"Well" Ulrich started "we've been chased by guards…Uh got new names,".
"Oh we saw my parents" Yumi answered "and my brother." Yumi stopped after she remembered her brother.
"Wow" Jeremy answered as he looked at all of them.
"You three should change your looks." Then seeing the surprise on their faces. " I mean just in case the police show up and search the house. They've done it before. To the people next door to us."
"How will we pull that off without anyone knowing?" Aelita asked.
"Giorgio" Jeremy answered. Then seeing the looks on their faces. "My barber. I've known him for years".
"Let's go then," Ulrich answered as he wiped maple syrup from his upper lip.
"What about Landon?" Aelita asked "Won't he suspect something if I just change my appearance out of the blue?"
"No" Jeremy answered, "we were talking last night and he said you looked like the girl on the posters. He thinks it's a good idea."
"What will we tell him about these three?" she asked "What will he think of them".
"We'll tell him they're our cousins" Jeremy answered off the top of his head.
Ulrich and Yumi looked at the two of them with puzzled looks.
The two of them explained that Landon thought they were cousins and that Aelita's alias was Alice and Jeremy's was Logan.
After breakfast the three of them took showers and then they drove in the car to the salon on the other side of town.
"Who is these people?" a man with a large Italian looking mustache that muffled his voice asked in a thick Italian accent.
"Giorgio" Jeremy started "these are my cousins. They're looking for new styles"
"they look-a like-a the wanted children" the stylist answered.
"That's why they need new styles." Jeremy answered, "the police keep thinking they are the wanted children".
"Well I'll take-a all of them at once" the Italian man answered as he clapped his hands together.
Three women appeared as soon as the man clapped his hands. They each took one of the three to a different room in the large salon.
In the car on the way over the three of them had agreed that the girls would walk to the department store and buy new clothes and then the Jeremy and Ulrich would go. They agreed to show the other three at the same time. They were to meet at the salon in three hours.
They said goodbye to each other as they were ushered to the different rooms.
First they all had their hair washed then one of them got their hair cut and two had it extended and all three of them had it dyed or bleached.
"Wow Yumi" Aelita answered, "your hair looks great".
"So does yours, Aelita" Yumi answered, "I think Jeremy will really love it".
" Well let's go to the store," Aelita answered, "the boy's will be out soon and they'll want to get changed too."
The two of them walked down the street to the department store. The two of them split up and went to find their sizes. They met each other near the changing rooms an hour later.
" We've got to meet Jeremy and Ulrich in an hour" Yumi started as she stared at her watch. "I think the boys are already here so we better hurry up."
The two of them went into the dressing rooms and changed. When they came out in different outfits they hardy recognized each other.
They bought enough outfits to last for a week then they walked back to the salon. They were relieved to still see Jeremy's car still in the parking lot. They put their bags in the back and noticed there were two more bags in the back. They put their bags in the back next to the other ones. Then they walked into the salon.
They noticed a boy and a man sitting in the seats near the doors.
"Is that them?" The first boy asked, a blonde with slightly dark highlights.
"Of course" Jeremy answered.
"Uh… Which one is Stephanie?" the boy asked as he fixed his hair to the best of his ability to make sure it looked good.
"Just pick one" the man answered
"The one in the skirt" the boy started "Stephanie would never wear a skirt".
Eric walked over to the girl in the skirt and tried to plant a kiss on her. He was instantly greeted with a slap.
" Try the other one." The man called.
"Hello Stephanie" Eric said as he got close to her. "You look nice" he put his arms around her waist.
"Ulrich not here!" Stephanie whispered in his ear as she hugged him. "You never know who is watching."
"What's wrong with showing the way I feel about you?" Eric asked
"Come on you two" Logan started as he and Alice stood next to each other a few feet away. "We should get in the car."
" Everybody climb in" Logan said as they all opened a door to the car. Eric sat in the back behind Stephanie and Alice sat next to Eric.
"You all look very different." Jeremy began " In fact when Ulrich walked up to me I thought I was going to be mugged". The four of them laughed as the car turned a corner and then started to sputter. "Oh no!" Jeremy exclaimed " I forgot this car is a piece of junk." He turned the key to the off position and slammed his fist onto the controls. " Well it looks like we'll have to call Landon for a ride back to the apartment."
"Well" Landon began " with my work materials in the back I can only take two people at a time." He looked at the four of them.
"No problem." Logan answered " Just take my cousins and I'll walk from here."
"you sure?" Landon replied " it's kind of a long walk."
" I'm totally sure" Logan explained "I'll tough it out"
"I'll walk with you" Eric answered. "Then Landon only needs to make one trip. He can just take the girls" Eric continued.
" I wanna walk with you guys" Stephanie explained.
"Even better" Logan continued " Landon can take Alice and the shopping bags in one trip."
"Well you heard the man Alice" Landon began "Let's get a move on"
" We'll be back at the apartment shortly." Logan explained to Alice. "Just keep yourself entertained ok, Alice?"
Alice nodded as Landon's car began to speed down the street.
