So, I figured you'd rather have a new chappy than a long one.
Sorry bout the shortness, but I intended it to be short.
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No Matter What They Say

Chapter 53: For The Love Of

Jared checked his phone again. Aelita hadn't answered his text messages. He had sent her one the night before to see if she got back all right. He sent her another one that morning because she hadn't answered the first one. He frowned as he still didn't have any messages. He stood up and went into the bathroom. After showering, fixing himself up, and getting dressed, he headed back out into the room. He grabbed his wallet from off of the desk and stuffed it into his pocket. Then he picked up his phone and key as he headed out the door. He walked swiftly to the elevator and pushed the down button. While he was waiting, he looked at his phone. He pulled up Aelita's contact and contemplated pressing the send button. He shook away the idea, thinking of it as being too over-obsessive, although he was starting to get a little worried. He pressed the end key, just as the elevator dinged and the doors opened. He stepped in and headed down to the lobby. He walked quickly to a café and got seated almost immediately in a nearly empty section.

-m-

Aelita leaned forward and whispered into Kiptyn's ear. He didn't hear her so she spoke a little louder. After the fourth time, he heard her ask, "Can we stop for a second?" He happened to be second in the group of four mobiles. He sped up just enough to catch the eye of Ayden who was in the front. He motioned that he was going to stop, and Ayden nodded. Soon all four snowmobiles slowed to a halt. Aelita hopped off of her mobile, took five staggering steps, and fell to the ground on all fours.

"Aelita!" Odd shouted as he jumped off of his and ran over to her. "Are you alright?" he asked as he leaned down and braced her shoulder.

Aelita grasped her head. "I'm just a little lightheaded, that's all. I'm sure it's nothing." She stood up and brushed Odd off, giving him a reassuring smile. He reluctantly let go of her, and she immediately fell back down as soon as she tried to take a step. She groaned and reached for her head again.

"That's not just nothing!" Odd bent down and supported her again. He then turned around and called Kiptyn over. "She just collapsed, and I don't know what to do. Help me!"

Kiptyn looked from Odd's torn face, to Aelita. "I don't know what's going on with her. What even happened?" Odd explained how she just collapsed without warning. Suddenly the rest noticed that something was happening over with Aelita, Odd, and Kiptyn. Sissi and Jeremie walked over to see what was wrong. "I don't know what to tell you. Didn't she eat with the rest of you?"

Jeremie bent over and lifted Aelita's chin. "What are you doing?" Odd accused him.

"Shush," Jeremie quickly retorted and continued to lift Aelita's chin. "Tell me what you feel. Why'd you ask us to stop?"

Aelita groaned slightly. "My head started getting light and my vision started blurring. I assumed I needed to get up and walk around for a second. Then, my legs just gave out. Right now my head is spinning. I think I need to sit down."

"Open your eyes," Jeremie commanded, and she did. "You look fine. How much did you eat?"

"Enough."

Jeremie groaned. "Aelita. Answer the question. How much did you eat?"

Aelita sighed as she knew that there was no point I lying. "I had a half of a sandwich."

Sissi and Kiptyn's eyes widened along with Odd's. "Why? What did you do with the other half and the bagel?"

Aelita sighed again. "I gave it to Odd," she murmured.

"You told me that they had extra!" Odd accused. "Why would you give away your only food!"

Aelita looked up at him with a quizzical look. "You always eat more than me. I knew you'd been complaining about the lack of food for a long while. Why wouldn't I share my own with you? I knew I'd get some when I got down the mountain."

Odd looked at her and shook his head. "You shouldn't have done that Aelita. Why do you always feel like you need to sacrifice yourself for the needs of others?"

"I don't know," she murmured and looked away from him. "I guess I thought I was helping you out."

"Aelita!" Jeremie shouted. "Why didn't you stop the mobiles sooner! You know that lightheadedness is a sign that you haven't had enough to eat! Why would you put yourself in danger!"

Aelita bit her lip and stared off into the distance. After a couple seconds of composing herself, she took a deep breath. "Sorry. We can go now." She continued to look away from the condemning faces, but stood up. She shrugged Odd's hand off of her shoulder and headed back toward the mobile. Despite falling before, this time she did not falter. Aelita sat down on the mobile and waited for the others.

Jeremie sighed. "Do you have extra?" he asked Kiptyn. Kiptyn sadly just shook his head. "Of course. Let's just go. The sooner we get down the mountain, the sooner we can get out of this mess and Aelita can get herself some food."

Jeremie turned and strutted back to his mobile. "Don't pay any attention to him," Odd stated to Kiptyn as soon as Jeremie was out of earshot. "We're all just tense, and he's not used to not being in control. Don't beat yourself up. I'm sure she'll be fine. She's got to be." Odd gave a weak smile. Sissi gave his hand a quick squeeze. Kiptyn nodded and they all headed back to their mobiles.

They each sat back down. Aelita wrapped her arms around Kiptyn's waist, and Odd wrapped his arms around her. Before they took off, Odd leaned forward to whisper into Aelita's ear. She was slightly crying, although she continued to wipe the tears away as soon as they formed. "Don't feel bad about it Aelita. I'm sure there would've been others that would've done the same thing in your situation. I appreciate what you did."

She wiped another set of tears away. "Thanks," she muttered. Then she closed her eyes just about the same time that they began to start descending the mountain again.

-m-

Johnny found Milly and Tamiya waiting in the lobby for him. "Hey guys, what did you have planned?"

"Well, I wasn't sure what we should do. We thought that you might have a plan," Tamiya stated. "I guess we could go around and look for them, but that could mean searching for quite a while, and even then we might not be able to find them."

"I also wouldn't wanna go outside to look. It's really storming out there," Milly said. "This is the worst storm I've ever seen! Oh I hope they're not out there." Milly turned and looked out the windows. There was a good two and a half feet of snow, and snow was continuing to fall. "I don't know what we'd even do if they were. Oh, Tamiya! Please say they aren't stuck out there!" Milly started to tear up and turned toward Tamiya. She wrapped her arms around her and began to weep softly into her shoulder. "I don't think I could stand it!"

Tamiya patted her back gently. "It'll be ok, Milly. I promise. Everything will be ok." Johnny watched awkwardly as Tamiya began to comfort Milly. "You see what has been going on?" Tamiya whispered to Johnny. "This happened once earlier."

"So, what did you want to do?" Johnny asked again. "Do you want to ask Sissi or William if they've seen anyone? Wait, did William even come back? Who did come back? I remember seeing Sissi last night, but other than her and her friend, I don't remember seeing anyone."

"I'm not sure. We should go find Sissi," Tamiya said.

"You're not going to find her here," Herve stated as he walked up to them. "Sorry to interfere, but I just happened to hear you say you were looking for Sissi."

"What do you mean we won't find her here?" Johnny asked. "Why not?"

"I saw her leave with some guys this morning. They were riding snowmobiles out toward the slopes. That's what it looked like at least, for as far as I could see."

"Why would she be heading out into a snow storm?" Milly asked as she wiped her eyes. She left one arm around Tamiya's waist as if she still needed some comfort.

"Beats me. That's just what I saw this morning. Why'd you need to find her anyway?" Herve asked them. They all looked back and forth from each other to Herve and back. "What?"

"You don't think that they…." Johnny started.

"They'd never stay up…." Tamiya said. "But if they…."

"Yeah, if they got stuck in…." Johnny continued.

"And then they couldn't…." Tamiya continued.

Milly's eyes widened. "But you don't think they really…." She covered her mouth with her hand in surprise.

"What are you guys even talking about?" Herve asked abruptly cutting off their conversation.

"Well," Johnny began. "We haven't been able to find Ulrich or Yumi or the others, and they haven't been answering their phones."

"So what? You don't think that they're still…." Herve trailed off. Johnny, Milly, and Tamiya nodded. "And you guys thing that Sissi went out with those guys to find them?" They all nodded again. Herve thought over the scenario. He played it out in his head. It would explain why she went with three guys, and why she was heading out toward the ski slopes in the middle of a blizzard. He looked at each of the others. They weren't joking. Everything made sense. "Ok, so what do we do?"

"Try calling Sissi," Milly said almost immediately.

Herve looked at her questioningly, but pulled out his phone anyway. He pressed Sissi's speed dial. It rang once and went straight into voicemail. He hung up and looked at everyone.

"It went into voicemail didn't it?" Tamiya asked.

"But how did you know?"

"So did everyone else's. I think that wherever they are, they don't have service," she replied. "It's not that unusual now that I think about it. I don't know why I didn't think of that before. It's not uncommon at all. Especially in snow storms." She pulled out her own phone. "I only have one bar myself."

Herve looked down at his own phone. "Yeah, I only have one as well. I guess that really is a possibility. Well, I guess we'll just have to wait until Sissi comes back. There's no sense in all of us going out there and getting lost out there." They all nodded. "Now, I have no more time to waste standing around chatting to you kids. I'm busy." With that remark, Herve walked away, leaving Milly, Tamiya, and Johnny standing in the lobby.

Herve walked down the hallway and turned into the café that Ashley had talked about. He sat down at an empty table next to a window and buried his head in his hands. This is such a mess. She didn't even ask me to come along with her. Doesn't she realize how much I would do for her? Herve sighed and shook his head. Sissi will never see me. Besides, she has that lifeguard now anyways. What's his name anyway? Ugh. It doesn't matter. He lifted his head and looked out the window. The snow continued to fall. First she had Ulrich, or wanted him at least. Now she actually does have this lifeguard. Forget me. I'm just Herve. Not of an import. He continued to think to himself about what to do with his life, and next thing he knew, Ashley came up behind him.

"May I have a seat?" she asked timidly.

He looked up at her and nodded. Then, he gestured to the seat.

"I'm glad you showed up. I wasn't sure if you would or not," she said as she sat down.

"I said I would," he said with a smile.

"Oh, we'll I'm glad you did. So, how long have you been here? You came with that school group didn't you?" she asked. "I thought I saw you with some of them earlier."

"Yeah, I came with them. I haven't seen you around though. How long have you been here?"

"I've been here for a while now. I come practically every summer because my mom works here. I wouldn't expect you to see me here. I'm just an employee…." She sighed and looked away out the window.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Herve asked.

"You know. I'm just an employee. I might as well be invisible. It's as if people see right through me. I just wait tables. I'm not important." Her words rang in his head as similar to his own as if she had just pulled his thoughts from his head.

"How can you not get noticed? You're beautiful," he said before he knew what he was saying. He bit his tongue and blushed. He turned his head away as if it would help hide himself.

Ashley looked at him and smiled sincerely. "You think I'm beautiful?"

He gulped as he realized he had roped himself into this. He had to say something. He couldn't deny it either or he'd hurt her feelings. "Uh, yeah… who wouldn't?"

She smiled as he turned to look back at her. "Well thanks. I don't get that often. I'm normally fairly invisible to people."

"I can relate. Sometimes I feel as if people don't see me or try not to see me. I've never been one to be popular, but I'm sure you could tell that." He sighed. "I've been alone this whole time. It's probably been obvious to you."

"I don't see why people wouldn't notice you. You seem like a nice guy. There aren't many of them out there."

"You don't know me," Herve said curtly. He turned back and faced out the window again. His hands were folded and resting on the table. He took another deep breath. Ashley reached out and placed her hand on top of his.

"No I don't know you, but I'd like to get to know you if you'd let me. You seem interesting. There's something about you that makes me think that you need someone to talk to. Now, I don't want to pry, but I'd love to hear about whatever it is that's bothering you if you'd like to share. I've had my own ups and downs in life, and I know that it's better to go through them with someone else. It's not easy going through things by yourself. I know." She removed her hand from his and stood up. She turned away and began to walk out.

She hadn't taken more than two or three steps when Herve called out after her. "Wait, Ashley! I do want someone to talk to." He stood up and walked over to her. "I've always been a misfit since as long as I could remember, and then I met Sissi."

"Oh. So, this is about a girl," she interjected.

"Do you want to hear this or not?"

"Sorry. I do."

Herve nodded. "As I was saying…."

Well, Thanks for reading.
I promise more action to come.
AP Exams are coming up soon though, so don't blame me if I'm slow.
I'll update asap.