Chapter 10

10€

"You wanted to see me?" Ulrich asked, standing in the doorway to his father's office. He had just watched his friends leave on the bus a moment ago and now he stood here, waiting for his father to look at him.

Bruno looked up from squaring a pile of papers on his desk. He sat the pile down and placed a hand on the desk, leaning where he stood. "Sit down," he ordered.

Ulrich walked in and sat in the seat facing his father's desk. Not sure what to expect from his father, the normal butterflies played around in his stomach.

"You're behind in your schooling again," Bruno stated, crossing his arms over his chest.

This again, Ulrich rolled his eyes. "I'm not surprised," Ulrich muttered.

"Don't you care?!" Bruno exclaimed.

"Yes, I care!" Ulrich threw back at his dad, looking up at the man. His heart started pounding, wishing he could tell the man the real reason why he was struggling so much lately but knew he couldn't.

"It doesn't look like you do," Bruno said. "I talked to a few of your teachers today at lunch. Ulrich, they know you have potential, I know you have potential. Where is it?"

Ulrich looked down at his lap, unsure of what he could say.

Bruno rubbed the bridge of his nose, as if fighting a headache. "Once everyone is able to find family and leave the castle, you're moving back here permanently and are going to have private tutors."

Ulrich looked up at him in surprise, only for the emotion to evaporate off his face. With everything that had happened, this time he could understand why his dad was getting what he had always wanted. No one else knew where they were going, if their families were ok, what tomorrow would bring. Kadic Academy was no more. He looked back down at his lap and mumbled, "Yes, sir."

"Now come on," Bruno said, taking a step away from his desk. "And button up your shirt."

Ulrich looked up at him, confused.

"You're going to sit in on the interviews," Bruno explained. "With all these students here and a school being run in this castle, we need more staff."

-.-.-.-

"I hate cloths shopping," Yumi grumbled as she and Aelita walked through the woman's department.

"It's not that bad," Aelita said, pulling out a pink shirt from a rack and held it up to her shoulders for size. "What do you think?"

Yumi looked at her friend and smiled. "It's you."

Aelita lowered the shirt, her eyes caught on something as her smile disappeared. Her eyebrows sank into her face as she let out an, "Awww."

Yumi turned to see what had caught Aelita's attention on to see stuffed animals had been placed on the end shelf of the next department. A row of stuffed dogs sat about eye level, one being a short, crème dog with a long muzzle. "Kiwi," Yumi mumbled.

Aelita walked over to the shelf and plucked the small dog off the shelf, bringing it with her back to Yumi. "It's just missing his collar," Aelita said, her voice horse.

Yumi grabbed the tag hanging off the small dog's ear and looked for a price. "Ten euros, and you know this wouldn't count as a necessity."

Aelita placed the shirt still in her hand back on the rack and reached into her jumper pocket. She pulled out her fisted hand and opened it to look at what she had. "I've only got five."

Yumi reached into her pocket and pulled out a few coins. "Three."

"Do you think Jeremie might have any on him?" Aelita asked, looking up at her friend.

Yumi looked in the opposite direction then the shelf that held the stuffed animals and saw two heads of blonde hair. She stuck her money back in her pocket and said, "I'll go check."

"Don't let Odd know. If we can, I wanna surprise him," Aelita said, looking the dog over with sad eyes.

Yumi nodded her head as she started walking away. She sidestepped out of Milly and Tamiya's way, finding it weird seeing everyone from school out shopping, and made it over to Jeremie and Odd. Odd was holding up a pair of paints, trying to see if they would fit him. "Hey, you got any change?" Yumi asked, announcing her presence.

The two looked at her as Jeremie said, "Probably a few centime. Why?"

"Aelita found a stuffed animal she wanted," Yumi said, throwing her thumb over her shoulder towards the pink haired girl just visible over the racks of cloths. "After all Mr. Pück went through and she now loses him. We only need three euros."

Jeremie shifted the bundle of cloths hanging off his arm and reached into his pants pocket as Odd did the same. He pulled out his hand and looked at the coins he had. "I've got one, fifty-five."

"Here's a two," Odd said, finding the coin in his pocket. He handed it towards Yumi as she plucked the one euro coin out of Jeremie's open hand.

"Thanks," Yumi said, a smile on her face. She closed her hand around the coins and hurried back to Aelita.

"Did he have anything?" Aelita asked, the rat terrier still clutched in her hands.

Yumi held out the money she had gotten from them. "Just enough," she said, reaching into her pocket to pull her money back out. "Here, go ahead and pay for him. That way he'll be hidden in a bag as we finish shopping."

Aelita smiled at her friend, taking the money before heading to the front of the building.

Yumi watched the girl walk away and went back to hunting down cloths for herself, taking the pink shirt Aelita had shown interest in. She glanced back over to where she could still see the two boys as a sad smile appeared on her face. She hoped Jim was right and that Kiwi had run away before the fires broke out. She hoped there was some chance that Kiwi was still alive. She'd seen Odd in times of crises and he always managed to crack stupid jokes to try and lighten the mood. The whole trip she hadn't heard one joke from him. Maybe for the time being, this little plush Kiwi might lift his spirits.

AN: This chapter's what pushed me over the edge and made me make my own little Kiwi plush. I looked around to see if someone had already made one, and there only seems to be a couple out there. So I made my own! Right now he's only made out of felt but I plan to use this pattern and make one with fur. I just have to learn how to make his nose better. If you want to see how he turned out, go to my deviantart page and look for Kiwi Plush.

Also random French tidbit I found out while doing research, the French are one of the only groups that use the Euro that call cents "centimes". At least, as far as I can find.