Out of Place
Chapter 13
It was amazing how they even made it to their second class on time. They caught the bus and rode forty-five minutes to Kadic from Leo's house. They all ran up to their dorm rooms before showering faster than they ever had in their lives before darting to class.
Jeremie, Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd sat in Mrs. Hertz's class. Jeremie and Aelita were trying their best to listen, but their eyes kept drooping shut. Odd and Ulrich were not even trying to stay awake or pay attention at all.
Aelita's eyes closed yet again. Her head fell and the pencil she had been writing with dragged across the paper, creating a long line that continued onto the table top. Jeremie nudged her and she snapped her head up and continued writing.
By the time gym class came around they were more awake, though still clearly in need of a nap. The chilly, fresh air felt nice to the tired teens.
Aelita was wearing navy blue shorts with a pink sweatshirt. Odd and Ulrich were wearing t-shirts and black, knee-length shorts. Jeremie stuck with the sweat pants and a t-shirt he always wore.
"Alright class!" Jim shouted at the students that sat on the ground before him. "Today we'll hit the weight room and play some lacrosse."
The students began picking partners when Jim began shouting again
"Now, now, hold on! I'll be choosing the partners today."
Everyone groaned in response.
"Everyone go sit with your partners after I call them out. Poliakoff, you're with Belpois."
The two boys looked at each other. They were already relatively close to one another so neither bothered to move.
"You look pretty tired, huh?" a voice whispered from behind Ulrich, Odd, Jeremie, and Aelita.
They turned to see Sissi smirking at them.
"And I seemed to have noticed that neither of you were in our first class today. Strange, I mean I knew you guys did everything together, but I didn't know you even had the same hooky schedule."
"Why don't you just back off, Sissi?" Ulrich snapped.
"Oh, Ulrich dear. I wouldn't want to accuse you of anything! It's your little friends I have the problem with. As you know, my father runs this school. I could tell him anything and I'm sure he'd believe me."
"Sissi...first off, I'm really, really not in the mood to deal with you today. Second, you should really stop with the threats before I tell everyone about how you fell off a ladder trying to prank Ulrich and I," Odd said.
"How-how did you find out about that?" she stuttered before glaring at Nicholas and Herb.
The two boys shook their heads and held their hands up in a surrendering manner.
"We didn't tell them, Sissi. Honest!" Herb said.
"You don't need to know how we know. We just know, okay?" Odd said.
"Don't you go threatening me Odd Della Robbia! I'm the principal's daughter!"
"Yes, yes, we know," Aelita, Jeremie, Ulrich, and Odd said simultaneously in exasperation.
"Aelita, you're paired with Ulrich," Jim announced.
"Honestly, Ulrich. I don't know why you hang out with such losers when you could be hanging out with me," Sissi said, putting her hand on his shoulder.
"I don't hang out with anyone who's stuck up like you," Ulrich chided, jerking his shoulder out of her grasp.
"And yet you hang out with trash," Sissi said, glancing at Odd.
Odd felt her stare but did not look at her.
"You wanna know what I think, Sissi? I think-" Odd started as his eyebrow twitched in aggravation.
"Odd and Sissi?" Jim called.
The two looked at Jim and then at the rest of their classmates. Their faces fell as realization hit.
"No," Odd said. "Jim, don't do it!"
"You two are partners," Jim continued.
"No!" the two shouted.
"You can't pair me with her!" Odd complained, pointing a finger at Sissi.
"And you can't pair me with this freak!" Sissi pointed at him as well.
"Actually, I can, and I did," Jim said in a grouchy manner. "Now everyone get to the weight room, on the double!"
Jim blew his whistle and everyone stood up. Odd and Sissi glared at each other as Ulrich and Jeremie snickered.
"Good luck, good buddy," Ulrich said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
In the weight room, Odd was lying on one of the bench presses. After losing to a game of rock, paper, scissors, he was the one who had to lift the weights first; Sissi was his spotter which caused him great unease.
"You disgust me," Sissi stated.
"Odd! That weight isn't going to lift itself!" Jim's voice rang out from across the room.
"Jim! I don't trust her with these weights!" Odd called, lifting his hand in the air.
Jim rolled his eyes and sighed.
"Della Robbia, will you just cooperate?"
"No worries, Odd. Sissi can't even lift a five pound weight, let alone that one," Aelita said, earning a laugh from Ulrich.
Sissi shot a glare in her direction and said, "No one asked your opinion dork."
"You know, you're right Aelita," Odd said as he lifted the bar up. "But if she does end up dropping this weight on my face I'm making her pay for my plastic surgery since she already has one on speed dial."
This made many in the class laugh. Sissi gave an angry growl before pushing the weight out of his hands.
There was a loud clanking sound as the weight fell onto Odd's chest, knocking his breath out of his lungs. Everyone then let out an 'Oh!' as if they felt the pain themselves.
Odd turned on his side and crossed his arms over his chest.
"You bitch," he choked out.
"Sissi!" Jim scolded as he marched over to them.
"What? His hands slipped!" she said innocently.
Odd sat up and glared at her and she gave him a wink.
"Alright, alright, that's enough," Jim said and blew his whistle. "Next station!"
Ulrich and Aelita were now at the bench press. Aelita was spotting Ulrich as he lifted the weight.
"I have a feeling this will be an interesting gym class," Aelita said.
"Me too, Aelita. Me too," Ulrich responded.
Odd and Sissi were on treadmills. Sissi was power-walking on hers while Odd jogged. Both were keeping their eyes away from each other.
"Bet that hurt, huh?" she said snidely.
"You would break the silence wouldn't you?" he said.
"Bet it was pretty embarrassing too."
"Oh sweetheart you could never embarrass me," Odd smiled in mock sweetness at her.
"Do not call me sweetheart."
Odd looked at her as she stuck her nose up. He brought his hand forward and held his finger on the button that controlled the speed. Sissi's eyes snapped open as the belt on the treadmill started moving faster and faster until she was at an all-out sprint.
"Wha-what is going-what's happening?!" she cried as she shuffled around trying to speed it down.
Odd jogged innocently and smiled.
Sissi finally tripped and shot back into the wall.
The class stopped what they were doing and turned to see what had happened. Jim was out in the hallway talking to another teacher. Ulrich had just started spotting Aelita when they looked over to see Sissi on the floor. They both began laughing, Ulrich even harder than Aelita since he had seen the entire spectacle.
Odd hopped off his own treadmill and called out, "Jim! Sissi had a little accident!"
"What on earth happened now?" Jim growled as he rushed back into the room.
"Odd started it!" Sissi sat up and pointed an accusing finger at Odd.
Jim pinched the skin between his eyes in aggravation.
"Look...if you two keep this up, I'll send you both to the principal's office!"
"Not my fault she can't control the machines, but okay," Odd muttered as he shrugged.
"Quiet, Della Robbia!" Jim scolded before turning to the rest of the class. "Alright. Everyone, outside!"
The class had separated into two teams. Ulrich and Aelita on one while Odd and Sissi were on the other.
When the lacrosse game was almost over, Jim was pleased to see that Odd and Sissi had not once tried to hurt each other. It was not until Odd was talking to another teammate and not paying attention that Sissi deliberately stuck her stick out to trip him.
The class began laughing and Sissi leaned on her lacrosse stick and smiled at him.
"It's like you have two left feet, freak."
Odd glared up at her. Upon hearing Ulrich's voice, he sat up.
"Hey, Odd! Did you hear the one about the dumb bimbo who tried to pull a prank on two of her fellow classmates?"
Odd stood up, smirked, and put his hand to his chin in mock-thought.
"No, I don't believe I have, good buddy!"
"Oh, sure you have! It's the one that ended in the dumb bimbo falling off a ladder and completely failing."
Odd snapped his fingers and said, "Oh yeah! I have heard that one! It's because it was Sissi! Sissi was the dumb bimbo who fell off the ladder trying to prank us."
Ulrich laughed and others followed suit.
Sissi blushed red in embarrassment. No one except Herb and Nicholas had known about that until just then.
She angrily snatched the lacrosse ball from another student's hand and chucked it as hard as she could at Odd's lower half. When the ball hit its target the entire class, especially the boys, let out a loud "OH!"
Odd fell to the ground and curled into himself, emitting out choking noises.
"Nice one, Sissi!" Herb shouted between laughter.
Sissi swished her hair behind her shoulder and smiled.
Odd coughed and gagged a bit as the pain made him almost want to throw up. His hand was in front of his pained area.
Jim pinched the skin between his eyes as the bell rang.
Ulrich, Jeremie, and Aelita leaned over him.
"You okay?" Ulrich asked.
"No," Odd gasped out.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Ulrich held up three fingers and Odd looked at his warily.
"Five?"
"No, three," Ulrich said as he shook his head.
Jeremie snorted with laughter. Odd punched him right in the nether-regions so that he could feel his pain. Ulrich flinched and Aelita put a hand to her mouth.
Jeremie gave a shout of pain and fell to the ground as well.
"I have a feeling you guys might need some ice later…" Aelita said timidly as Ulrich tried hard not to laugh.