A/N: this chapter is also rated T
Twenty-three weeks, early March
Growth and (Mis)trust
POV Jeremy
"Where are they? It's not like Odd to be late for dinner." Commented Ulrich
"That's true, as long as they're here before it's over. You guys have got some serious studying to do, and I'd like to get as much time in as possible." It was Thursday and that meant it was study night. Normally Sissi and Aelita studied together, while I helped Odd and Ulrich, but this evening we were all going to get together to study for midterms. Yumi had her own midterms to study for, and she was smart enough that she didn't need the help anyway. Odd and Sissi, however, were missing dinner for some reason, which was weird given how much Odd loved to eat!
"I'll bet they're in her room." Chimed in Aelita. She was probably right, but it still wasn't like Odd to miss dinner. "Let's just stop by before heading to the library. It's not like it's far."
We finished our dinners but Odd and Sissi never showed up, and for whatever reason, we couldn't get hold of either of their phones. "Alright, let's see if we can find the two lovebirds." Joked Ulrich, and we headed towards Sissi's room.
"You know they're just friends, right?" I reminded him.
"That's true, for now." Aelita said with a giggle. It sounded like she knew something that we didn't. Given that she was Sissi's usual tutor, and her good friend, it wouldn't surprise me.
"They certainly spend enough time together that they may as well be dating!" I chimed in again.
"Yeah, kinda like you and Aelita!" I felt my cheeks burn from Ulrich's teasing, and I shut up immediately. I glanced over at Aelita and her face was also beet red. I liked her a lot, but I yet to get up the courage to tell her. I had another reason too, but I didn't want to think about it right now.
"Hey Ulrich, can I ask you something?" Aelita asked, and I was grateful to her for changing the subject.
"Yeah, sure."
"I think we can all agree that having Sissi around is actually pretty fun, and she really is a good friend, right?" I thought I knew where she was going with this.
"I never thought I'd say it, but yeah."
"If Sissi had always been like this, and you'd never met Yumi, do you think you would have ever gone out with her?" Yep, she went right where I thought she was going. I laughed while Ulrich sounded like he choked. Aelita just smiled at Ulrich smugly for turning the tables on him before giving me a wink, which made me blush again.
To his credit, after recovering he actually did give it some thought before answering. "Probably not. Even if we did, it wouldn't have worked out. We're just not right for each other. Honestly, I hope that her and Odd do end up together. They're a solid match and they'd be good for each other."
"They already are good for each other! She's certainly come a long way." I agreed with Ulrich.
"She's not the only one, Odd has too. Who'd have thought that he would ever go and apologize to all his old girlfriends for being a jerk!?" Aelita reminded us. "I saw him get slapped six times, and I know there was a lot more than that! But he never gave up, never complained, and never brought it up to anyone else. I had to find out what was going on from the girls, and most of them didn't know he had talked to anyone besides them. I was very impressed!"
I remembered a conversation I had with Odd late one night a couple weeks ago.
"Hey Jeremy, can we talk for a minute?" Odd stood in my doorway looking uncharacteristically timid.
"Sure, come on in." I sat down in my computer chair and swivel to face him. He was looking at the floor. "What's up?"
"You remember when Aelita and I..." his mouth opened and shut a few times like he was having a hard time saying whatever it was. "... had to throw Hervé and Nicolas off the trail at the factory?"
I scowled at him for bringing that up. "Yeah, what about it?" I growled at him.
He didn't look up, but quietly said, "I'm sorry."
"What?"
He continued softly; his voice somewhat broken. "I know how you feel about Aelita, and I knew it then too. I thought it would be funny to get you all flustered and then even made fun of you for it afterwards. That wasn't right, so... I'm sorry."
I was grateful for the apology, but also confused. "That was almost a year ago, why are you bringing this up now?"
He looked up at me for the first time since he walked in. He just looked sad. "I... think I have a better idea of how you felt while that was happening, and I'm sorry for doing that to you for... no good reason. I'm sure we could have come up with a better plan than that."
I was still confused. As he turned around to walk out, it dawned on me! "Sissi still has feelings for Ulrich, doesn't she?" I asked as he reached the door. It was obvious that Odd really liked the girl. Even I could see it in the way he looked at her.
He took hold of the doorknob and squeezed it as hard enough for his arm to start to shake before he managed to croak out, "Yeah, a little." Then without giving me time to say anything else, he quickly opened the door and left.
I felt bad for him, but if he was learning to feel remorse for the things he'd done, and to be more considerate, then it was probably going to be a good thing in the long run. It was a huge step forward for him.
We had just finished climbing the stairs to the girl's dorm hallway and stopped right in front of Sissi's room. Ulrich was about to knock, but then stopped himself before putting his ear to the door. His eyes shot open wide in horror, and he pulled away from the door.
"What is it?" Aelita asked.
"Just listen." Ulrich whispered.
Aelita and I quietly put our ears to the door.
'Mmmmmmm that's good!' I heard Sissi moan.
'Mmm, I know right!' Odd moaned in response.
We both pulled our heads away from the door and I probably mirrored Ulrich's expression. Aelita just looked confused. "Ok, so what?" Ulrich and I looked at each other, then back to Aelita and we both blushed realizing one of us was going to explain aspects of a certain... activity... I was extremely grateful when Ulrich stepped up and whispered in Aelita's ear, relieving me from that duty. She jerked back from Ulrich, "NO WAY!" We both shushed her at the same time. "They're still just friends... for now..." she thought for a moment as if remembering something, then blushed. "Well, maybe not..."
"It certainly sounds like that's what's going on, doesn't it!" I blurted, probably louder than I should have.
Aelita gave me a dumb look. "How am I supposed to know what that sounds like!" A sudden realization dawned on her face. "How do YOU know what that sounds like!"
I blushed even more, "the walls at my parent's house aren't as thick as I sometimes wish they were." I answered with embarrassment. Aelita seemed satisfied with the answer though.
We all put our ears to the door again and heard Sissi first again.
'Ahhhh. Why on earth did I hold out on this for so long!'
'I dunno, beats me! That was good though!'
'Yeah, it certainly was!'
"Ok, this is too much, I'm going in!" Said Ulrich.
"Ulrich NO!" Aelita tried to stop him, but it was too late, and Ulrich barged into the room.
"DO YOU KNOCK!?" Shouted Sissi while I peered into the room over Ulrich's shoulder. Odd and Sissi were sitting on the bed, both fully clothed. Odd was holding a white cardboard fold-up box and a plastic fork and Sissi was glaring at Ulrich.
Odd looked down at the box, then over at us. "You know, I'd offer you guys some of this, but it's all gone. There's this Chinese food place down the road that has the BEST sweet and sour pork!"
"I completely wrecks my diet, but it was really good! Odd's been trying to get me to try it for weeks!" It all made sense now, and Sissi was still glaring at Ulrich.
"Uhh..." Ulrich was dumbfounded. "Sorry, I just thought..." he looked at the floor and blushed as he realized just how stupid barging in was regardless of what was actually going on!
Odd and Sissi looked at Ulrich, both obviously confused by how embarrassed he was getting. "You just thought what?" Odd asked, and Ulrich just got redder.
"Let's just say that we could hear moaning outside your door." Aelita hinted.
Odd and Sissi looked at Aelita, then each other, still confused, then back at Ulrich. Odd's eyes shot open wide as he figured out what Aelita meant and started laughing hysterically. "They. Thought. You and me..." he managed to wheeze out between laughs. When Sissi still didn't get it, he made a very obvious gesture with both hands and Sissi's jaw dropped!
"Ulrich Stern, you are horrible!" She shouted in a mix of shock and amusement. "First, despite what I KNOW you've all been saying lately, we are STILL just friends, that's all! Second, even if we were dating, that is still NOT happening! Third, if that WAS happening, you're horrible for barging in here while THINKING that was going on!" She started shaking her head while laughing, and Odd had fallen backwards on the bed and was clutching his stomach he was laughing so hard. Meanwhile, Ulrich did his best to disappear into the wall, and wasn't very successful.
"You know, Odd learned not to barge in a couple of weeks ago!' Aelita started cryptically.
Sissi's eyes got really wide for some reason. "Oh no you don't!" She lunged off the bed with Odd right behind her, and they grabbed Aelita by the arms. They flung her onto the bed and Sissi started tickling Aelita's sides while Odd held her arms down. I tried to help get her get out, but my efforts were rewarded with a leg sweep from Sissi. Clearly, she was still practicing Pencak Silat!
"You promise to not say anything?!" Sissi demanded of Aelita while I painfully slunk away.
"Ok, ok, I promise!" Aelita managed to squeeze out between gasps and giggles. Odd and Sissi pulled away. "Honestly, you two are worse than the scyphozoa!"
"Oh, come on, it wasn't THAT bad!" Exclaimed Odd.
"The skiffy-what?" Said Sissi, quite confused. The whole room quickly got silent as Odd, Ulrich, and I kept looking between Aelita and Sissi.
"I-It's nothing." Ulrich managed to stammer out.
"A scyphozoa is a jellyfish." I added, hoping to defuse the situation a little. It definitely didn't work.
Sissi looked at Odd, who looked back at her with the saddest look that I'd ever seen on his face. He turned to us. "Just go on ahead to the library, we'll catch up."
Sissi's face fell too. "Odd, you go ahead too."
"But..."
"Please, Odd. I just need a couple minutes to myself." I couldn't tell who looked more hurt, Odd or Sissi.
We all piled out of Sissi's room. I looked at Odd and it looked like he had tears forming. "You guys go on ahead, I need to grab my books from my room." He said glumly and ran off quickly.
"I'll bet that's the first time she's ever kicked him out." Aelita hissed before she started to walk away quickly, and we followed. "She's getting really tired of being lied to. She's not stupid, and she knows that we were up to something while we were fighting XANA." Ulrich and I murmured agreement. "It's obvious that Odd likes Sissi, maybe even loves her, and I'm pretty sure that she feels the same way, but how would they ever be able to make things work if Sissi feels like Odd can't trust her." She let that sink in for a moment. "And I can imagine how Odd feels having to hide it from her." Then she muttered bitterly under her breath, "she's my friend too, and I'm really tired of lying to her." I didn't like the idea of telling Sissi about Lyoko, but I trusted Aelita. Seeing the pain on Odd's face earlier was also awful, and this on top of Sissi's lingering feelings for Ulrich made me feel even worse for him.
We finished the trip to the library in silence and got our books out. Odd and Sissi ended up meeting us there only a few minutes behind us, but apart from each other. Both of their eyes were a little red and watery. While we were studying Odd kept glancing at Sissi with a look that said, 'I'm sorry,' and Sissi kept sadly looking back at him. It was probably the most depressing study session I'd ever been through.
After the study, and after lights out, I couldn't sleep. I just kept thinking about what Aelita said about Odd and Sissi. I knew I would feel awful if I was keeping a big secret like Lyoko from Aelita. I sighed and turned over. I guess if Odd decided to bring it up, I would be willing to discuss it seriously and fairly. Thankfully, that seemed to put my mind at ease enough to drift off.
A/N: So not a lot of Sissi or Odd in this one, but I felt that I needed to put in a little something depicting how the rest of the group felt about Sissi. This was also the other idea I'd had forever that forced the T rating. I hope you all liked it, as always, R&R!
