"She said she was just scared," Yumi began in the cafeteria that morning, "I'm sure she'll be okay."
"Sure? She looked horrible last night." Odd commented.
"Yeah, I'm sure. She's the type who can go through a lot."
"Maybe she was finally put through too much." Jeremy commented, surprisingly enough.
"What do you mean by that?" Ulrich asked.
"I mean, she might've been through more than we know. More than she told us."
"You mean she's keeping secrets…from us?" Yumi asked, shocked.
"I think. I found some of Hopper's personal files a few months ago, but Aelita didn't want to open them. Doesn't that sound…suspicious?"
"Yeah, maybe you're right. But…why do you care all of the sudden?"
Jeremy looked oddly surprised.
"All of the sudden? You think I don't care?"
"Looks that way, Einstein." Odd answered.
Ulrich and Yumi nodded.
He looked down, and a very uncomfortable silence followed. In the silence, they heard to girls chattering loudly.
"Did you hear Aelita Stones last night? She was crying so loud I got no sleep at all." A blonde girl asked.
"I know! What could be wrong? I've heard screams from her nightmare's once or twice, but something terrible must be going on!" a brunette added.
The gang all looked up, than at each other. All wanted to speak, but didn't know what to say.
The bell rang. Ulrich and Odd were the first to get up for math. Yumi got up to leave, and then said:
"You'd better fix this…today!"
In math, Jeremy was a minute or two late. Mrs. Meyer had yet to arrive, so he was safe this time. He took his regular seat in the front and watched the door for the one person he was finally going to talk to. After five or so minutes, the Teacher arrived and began to take roll call.
Jeremy was barely listening when it came to him. He listened closely to the names:
"Ulrich Stern?" She called.
"Here..." he replied, uninterested.
"Aelita Stones?"
No one answered.
"Aelita Stones? Is she here?"
"Um, I think I saw her in the infirmary today. She seemed sick earlier too." The same blonde from this morning called.
Jeremy, Odd and Ulrich's faces grew worried. What was going on?
In the infirmary, Aelita sat back in the bed pretending to be sick. Mostly pretending, that is. She didn't feel well enough to go to class today, even if she was physically well. Thank goodness it was Saturday, and only half the day was spent in class. She curled up on the bed and waited, letting her mind wander.
A little bit after the bell rang, Aelita said she was well enough to go to her room. The nurse looked suspicious but let her go anyway. She ran off to her room. Her real room; all the way at the Hermitage.
As she sulked, the rest of the gang did a little research on the supercomputer, about Aelita Schaeffer.
"Anything at all? We've been here forever!!" Odd complained.
"You know Franz, trying to hack his personal files is like finding a needle in a haystack… if not, harder." Jeremy answered back. Odd groaned and leaned back against the wall.
It took a while, but just before Odd was about to win "Rock Papar Scissors" against Ulrich, Jeremy shouted:
"Got it!"
"Really? You hacked Franz Hopper?" Yumi asked, slightly shocked.
"Yeah. and it wasn't easy at all. I don't even get the password."
"What was is?" Ulrich said, even though no one was sure he was listening.
"'Antea'. Sounds familiar, but I can't put my finger on it…"
"So, what's there?" Yumi said with anxiousness in her voice.
"Look like, pictures, a few videos, records, stuff like that."
They all leaned in to gaze upon the pictures of a life they knew next to nothing about; Aelita's.