"Um, Yumi, can I ask you something?"

Lunch was over. Ulrich had left the two Einsteins to talk over finding Aelita's missing fragments and Odd had gone off with a few words about some sort of video game.

"Yeah?" The Japanese girl looked down at him. Literally. She was almost six inches taller than the brunette.

"Uh..." Ulrich knew he was red. He shifted his weight from foot to foot. He'd faced krabs, kankrelots, megatanks, hornets, tarantulas, the sycphozoa, specters, missile strikes, and a power hungry AI that wanted him dead, all without blinking. Now he was facing a girl—a particular beautiful, Japanese girl that was the only one with the power to reduce him to a stuttering fool—and couldn't even look her in the eye.

"What is it, Ulrich?"

The end of the year dance was coming up. Both of them knew it, and both of them wanted to go together. While Ulrich struggled to spit the question out, Yumi secretly hoped it would be the one she was thinking of.

"Will... Will you go to the—"

"Yumi!"

Blast.

Ulrich turned his head, aware of the very noticeable blush on his cheeks. William was walking toward Yumi, smiling confidently. Of course he had to come right at that moment.

Unknown to each other, Yumi and Ulrich both gave a disappointed mental sigh.

"Yumi, can I talk to you?" William asked, and before she had a chance to answer, the boy took her arm and began to bring her away.

Yumi gave an apologetic look to Ulrich. He sighed as they walked several yards away and William began to talk. Even unable to overhear them, what William was asking was clear. He was blushing, and Yumi had an embarrassed look on her face.

Ulrich felt a spurt of jealousy. Perhaps it was that jealousy that caused Ulrich to do what he did next.

"Sissi!" He called to the black haired girl standing by the vending machines. It wasn't the black haired girl he wanted, but it didn't matter.

The girl's eyes lit up as she hurried over to Ulrich, two other boys trailing doggedly behind.

"Yes, Ulrich?" Her sweet voice made Ulrich shudder and begin to rethink his idea. But then he got a glimpse of Yumi and William again. They were both looking at him. He felt the burn of jealousy again and thoughts of disgust vanished.

"Um, would you like to go to the end of the year dance with me?" Ulrich asked.

Sissi almost exploded on the inside. On the outside, she attempted to remain calm, but it her delight was obvious to Ulrich. "Of course, Ulrich dear. I'd love to."

Ulrich held back another shudder. Too late to go back now. Sissi walked away happily, murmuring to herself about how she knew he had wanted her all this time. The boys followed.

After several seconds, Yumi approached Ulrich with a look of surprise and slight jealousy. "You're going to the dance with Sissi?"

"Yeah." Ulrich tried to keep the satisfaction out of his tone.

"But I thought..."

"What? I mean, you are going to the dance with William, aren't you?"

Here Yumi's face hardened. "Oh, because you know for a fact that he asked me to it and that I said yes?"

Ulrich was beginning to regret his decision.

"Well, I wasn't going to, but I guess now that you're going with Sissi, I can." Frowning, Yumi turned and rejoined William. Ulrich felt a pit forming in his stomach as they talked briefly, linked arms, and walked off.

"Why'd you do that?"

Ulrich jumped. "Jeez, Einstein, don't sneak up on me like that," he said, turning to face the scrawny blond.

He shrugged and after a pause, said, "So, you're going to the dance with Sissi? Good luck with that torture."

Ulrich snorted. "Yeah. I don't know how I'm going to live."

"You wouldn't have to if you had just asked Yumi, you know."

"Yeah, well... I just saw Yumi with William and got a little jealous..." He gestured helplessly.

"A little jealous?" Jeremy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah." When a hint of a smirk flickered over Jeremy's face, Ulrich snapped to cover his embarrassment. "Well, it's not so easy to ask, you know? When she's just staring at you..."

"It's just a simple question. It's not that hard, Ulrich. All you need is some confidence and courage."

Ulrich couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Not that hard? Confidence and courage? Coming from you? I'd like to see you try to ask Aelita to the dance!"

A blush blossomed on Jeremy's cheeks. "Well, I could, if I, um, wanted to..." He coughed, averting his eyes. "But whether I could or not is irrelevant. I'm not going to the dance."

"Why not?" Ulrich asked.

"Too much work to do. Aelita and I will be in the computer la—"

"Did I hear my name?"

Jeremy chuckled as Ulrich jumped. A pinkette suddenly stood by the duo, tilting her head curiously.

"When did everyone turn into a ninja?" Ulrich asked, shaking his head. Then, catching Jeremy's smile, he suddenly thought of an idea. "Yeah, Aelita, you did. We were just talking about the dance."

Jeremy must have seen the glint in Ulrich's eyes, because his own widened slightly. The blond gave a slight shake of his head. Ulrich gave a slight nod back, trying to restrain a smirk.

"Oh, the end of the year dance?" Aelita asked. When she received a nod by Ulrich, she smiled. "Ah. I'm hoping to go to it with someone."

"Oh, really?" Ulrich spoke in a high tone, filled with fake innocence. Jeremy shook his head more noticeably, but this time it was pleading. "Because Jeremy wanted to go too. In fact, he has something to ask you."

Jeremy stole a glance at Aelita, blushed at her beaming face, then stared at Ulrich.

Don't, his eyes said.

Well, you said it wasn't hard, Ulrich responded via eyebrow raised and small smirk. Then he jerked his head slightly.

Go on, then.

Jeremy shook his head.

"Well?" Aelita asked expectantly, looking back and forth between Ulrich and Jeremy.

"Uh... I was hoping that... you'd, um, go to the dance with me..." Blushing, Jeremy stared at Ulrich. Happy?

Ulrich smirked in response.

"I'd love to!" Aelita exclaimed happily. She pecked him on the cheek. "I have to get something from the library, but I'll meet you in the computer lab in a little while." Then she was gone as quickly as she had come.

Jeremy touched the spot where Aelita had kissed him, then shoved his hands in his pocket, blushing and smiling. He noticed Ulrich staring at him meaningfully.

"What?" Jeremy asked defensively, blushing even more. "You've never seen a hypocrite before?"

"Hey, Jerry." Twi twirled a strand of hair around her finger.

"Twi?" his groggy voice answered.

"Yep, the one and only, the amazing." Twi smiled. "How are you?"

There were muffled noises on the other end of the phone line. "Twi, you know I love you, but why are you calling at this hour? My classes don't start for a few hours and I'd really like to sleep until then."

"Jeez, you act like being on the phone with a sister you haven't seen or talked to in months is so terrible."

"It's not. But it's not fun when it's 4:00am my time. Speaking of sisters, how is Dawn doing?" Jerry asked.

"She's doing good, as far as I know. I'll check on her soon."

"Good." There was a long pause. "Did you want anything? If you called for just idle chitchat, please call back later. I need to sleep."

"Fine." Twi allowed herself to lie on the grass, hair stretched out in silver streaks around her. "I just wanted to..." She stopped. A nagging feeling said not to ask about her father's death. Instead, she said, "I just wanted to tell you that I'm transferring schools."

"Again?"

She could hear the accusation in his voice. "It wasn't my fault I got stuck on the roof last time, remember?"

"Maybe not, but it was your fault that the principal's party was ruined."

"I didn't know the chocolate fountain would explode!" Twi exclaimed, then sighed. "Okay, enough about past schools."

"What did you do to get expelled this time?"

"I didn't do anything, and I didn't get expelled. Honestly, I don't know where you get the notion that I'm always in trouble. I'm just switching schools."

"Why?"

"Um, I'd like a fresh start." The lie was out before she had even thought about it. "Besides, Kadic has been offering me a scholarship for my skills and grades for over a month now."

There was a pause. "Kadic? You're going to Kadic?" His voice was suddenly alert and stiff, sounding completely different than the half-asleep tone Jerry had used before.

Twi noticed it. "Well, yes," she said slowly.

"All right then. Call me when you get there, okay? Listen, I have to go." Before Twi could say anything, there was a small click and the phone went dead.

Twi sat up and frowned at the phone. He was keeping something from her. She could hear it in his tone.

Just another secret to add to the pile, I guess.

She stood, shrugged to herself, and went inside to pack.

"Yumi, you know, I was wondering..."

"Yeah?"

William looked up from his book. "What do you do when you rush away so often with your friends? What's the hurry?"

Yumi stiffened. She looked up from her textbook, eyes darting around the library. "Why do you want to know?"

William recoiled at the sharpness of her tone. He held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Hey, no need to get mad, I'm just curious."

Yumi relaxed. "Sorry... We do different things, like, um... studying." She mentally winced at the lie.

"Studying? But you guys act so urgently, like you need to save the world or something."

Yumi forced a weak chuckle. "Well, you'd act urgent if you needed to save the world, wouldn't you?"

William smiled. "I guess so. But it's not like you guys have to, right?"

Yumi tried not to sigh. How she wished that were true. "Right."