13. Switching bodies with Odd was one of the strangest things she'd ever experienced.
"It's just a glitch," Jeremie states. He stares at them imploringly from behind his glasses. "I'm sure I'll have a solution tomorrow morning."
Yumi crosses her arms over her chest and looks up at Jeremie. She shouldn't have to look up. She refuses to look across at Ulrich and Odd. Because that would be too much. Aelita is seated in the corner, hands wringing the too-long pink sleeves of her jacket. "What are we supposed to do until then?" she demands.
Jeremie pushes his glasses up and shifts from one foot to the other. "Act normal?"
"Uh, Einstein?" Odd asks. She automatically looks over to the other two and regrets it immediately. It's too surreal, seeing her body across the room. It's shifting and frowning in a way that she doesn't recognize. Does she make those expressions normally? "How're we supposed to act normal like this?" Her body's mouth moves, but Odd's voice comes out.
Jeremie shrugs. "I don't know, it's just for a night, right? Just go to sleep early."
"Jeremie," she doesn't whine, "I live with my parents. How do you think they'll react to…" She can't come up with a proper word to describe Odd inhabiting her body. Instead she waves a hand in his direction.
Jeremie shrugs helplessly. "I don't know, Yumi. You guys need to figure that out, I have a long night ahead."
Aelita looks up from where she's been fidgeting with the sleeves on her sweater. "I'll help you," she tells Jeremie. He looks unsure and she places a hand on his shoulder. "Two heads are better than one, right?"
"Right," he replies, voice decisive and smile relieved.
"Come on, guys," Ulrich coaxes. He looks between Yumi and Odd before turning to the exit. "The sooner we leave Jeremie and Aelita alone the sooner he can figure out how to switch you two back."
"Yeah, right," Odd replies, "as long as they don't get distracted."
/
Kiwi growls at her when she digs through one of Odd's dresser drawers. She uses a pencil to move his underwear and socks around, closes the drawer and moves on to the next one. Kiwi growls again and she looks at the dog.
"Stop it, I'm having a bad enough day without you adding to it," she tells him. Kiwi stares at her from Odd's bed, ears twitching. "You know me, Kiwi," she adds, more soothing this time. She turns back to the drawer, spots the green case Odd had mentioned. It's half-hidden by a magazine and tangled with his ear phone cord. "Gotcha," she grins, grabbing it.
Kiwi watches as she pockets the case, whines low in his throat. "You and me both," she tells the dog as she pulls open the door, checks her pocket to make sure she has the room key. "Be good," she adds.
She closes the door and almost runs into a girl with red hair and an angry frown. She looks familiar but she can't place her name. The girl's hand connects with her left cheek. "You are despicable, Odd," the girl states.
"What?" Yumi asks, confused.
"You don't think I wouldn't find out about Claire? Honestly?" She shakes her head and storms away. Yumi rubs her cheek and blinks after her.
She's just finished locking the door when someone else marches up to her. She looks up and it's another girl. She recognizes this one's blonde-brown hair though. "Claire?" she asks.
"You, Odd Della Robbia, are a sneaky rat," Claire announces. She punches Yumi in the face before she can react. She reaches up, rubbing her right cheekbone as Claire glares at her. "It's like you didn't even expect me to learn about Magali."
"Wait, I-"
"Save it," Claire snaps. She storms off without a backward glance.
"Well, that was amusing." Yumi looks up to see Sissi leaning against the wall down the hall.
"What do you want?" Yumi demands.
Sissi just shakes her head, smirking. "Come now, you can do better than that," she replies. She pushes off the wall, sauntering past Yumi toward the stairs. "If you give Ulrich that type of dating advice it really will be only a matter of time before the string bean drops him and he needs a new girlfriend."
"What are you talking about?" Yumi asks.
Sissi just laughs, disappearing down the stairs. Yumi glares after her. "This is why I don't live in the dorms," she mutters. She starts after Sissi but is stopped when Ulrich appears at the top of the stairway.
"Hey," he calls. "Did you get it?"
She checks her pocket, making sure the green case is still in it. "Yeah, I got it." They make their way down the stairs. "Sissi said something vaguely interesting." Ulrich makes a hmming sound but doesn't ask. "Any idea what she means by string bean?"
"It's nothing." Ulrich pushes open the doors at the front of the dorm. She isn't certain, but it appears that the back of his neck is flushed. They're immediately accosted by Milly and her microphone, Tamiya and her video camera. "No comment," Ulrich informs them. He ushers Yumi away from their barrage of questions and she wonders if the whole world went crazy.
"Are you going to tell me what's going on?"
"Why don't you ask that imbecile, Odd?" he grumbles. She has a feeling it's going to be a long night.
/
Chopsticks are harder than they look.
She stares at the text and groans. Kiwi is curled next to her, his chin on her thigh. Idly, she scratches behind his ear. What did you do? she types back.
Don't worry, H covered 4 me/you.
You/me?
Yumi!
Ha!
Get it? ;)
Her eye twitches. She looks at Kiwi to tell him just how much of an idiot his owner is, and pauses. Her hand flickers, going translucent. She blinks and it's back to normal. "It must be the dorm air," she tells Kiwi. The little dog licks her hand and stares at her with sad eyes. "It makes everyone go crazy."
Kiwi's tail wags slowly and he lets out a whining yawn. She thinks he agrees with her.
/
The less said about Odd's shoes, the better.
/
She has a younger brother, so it isn't like she isn't aware that boys and girls are biologically different. She used to give him baths when he was a toddler! But there's a difference between bathing your baby brother and bathing your friend's borrowed body.
She debates for a long time on just skipping the shower, but she can't. Odd had to have used an entire jar of gel in his hair and there's no way she can sleep like this. Plus, she feels too keyed up, too stressed. A hot shower would help calm her down.
Ulrich gives her a doubtful look when she mentions it. "There are shower stalls," he tells her, finally. "So you won't have to worry about seeing anyone else. Or them seeing you." He opens Odd's dresser drawers, shoulders tense as he digs through Odd's clothes. "Just don't talk to anyone."
"Why would I talk to anyone?" she asks. "I just want a shower."
"Okay, good," he replies. He tosses her a bundle of clothes. She sets them out on the bed. T-shirt, boxers, pajama pants. "Those are clean. Odd's flip flops should be under his bed," he adds. She gets on her hands and knees, roots around through the junk under the bed, and finds the flip flops next to Odd's suitcase. She slides her feet into them. When she looks up Ulrich is in the closet.
"What are you-"
"Here you go," he replies. He holds out a shower caddy and folded towel. She takes everything, stands there for a moment. "Third door down, on the left," Ulrich tells her.
"Right, thanks," she replies.
So, now she's in a shower stall in the boy's bathroom and she's still fully dressed. It's ridiculous. She'd laugh, but she hears a shower running and doesn't want whoever it is to think that she, that Odd, that they lost their mind? She keeps tripping over the pronouns.
She's not going to spend all night in the shower stall. She rolls her eyes, reminds herself that it's no different than bathing Hiroki, really. She turns on the hot water and strips quickly, thankful there isn't a mirror in the stall. She doesn't even have to look, just a quick wash.
It takes three rounds of shampoo-and-conditioner to get all the gel out of Odd's hair. She sighs in relief when it's finally washed out, does a quick scrub-down of the rest of her borrowed body. The other difference between bathing her baby brother and her borrowed body, is that Hiroki hasn't entered the world of puberty yet.
Well, so much for a relaxing shower, she thinks.
/
Ulrich looks up when she reenters the room. He's sitting on his bed, shirtless, tossing a rubber ball for Kiwi to fetch. Her face is red and he raises his eyebrows. Otherwise, his face is unreadable. "Any issues?"
"Nope," she replies. She sets everything down on Odd's desk and climbs into bed hastily.
"You okay?" Ulrich asks.
"Just tired," she replies. She rolls over, realizes that the sheets are different than when she'd left. "Did you change the bedding."
He shrugs, takes the ball from Kiwi and tosses it again. "Figured you'd want clean sheets," he says. He looks at her for a moment, until Kiwi yaps, dropping the ball in his lap. He tosses it across the room again and Kiwi scurries after it. "You want to talk about anything?" he asks.
"Not much to talk about, Ulrich," she sighs. She watches him play with the dog he spent so long complaining about. "It's been a long, weird day." He nods, scratches Kiwi's belly before tossing the ball. "What do you and Odd usually do before bed?" she asks.
"This," he replies, shrugging. "Sometimes one of us will take Kiwi for a run, but mostly we just try and tire him out. He gets bored, stuck in here all day." She nods, watching the little dog running back and forth. "Video games, sometimes. Studying. It depends on the night."
Her phone buzzes and she grabs it off the bedside table. Bras are horrible. Y do girls wear them?
Her face heats again. I TOLD you not to take it off!
Don't worry, Y, I didn't peek
Ur virtue is safe
"Yumi?" Ulrich asks, staring at her. "Everything okay?"
"Your roommate is dead," she growls, flinging an arm over her face. Her phone buzzes again and she hesitates before looking at it.
Give Kiwi a good night kiss from me!
I'll leave it up to you on kissing U good night ;)
"Dead," she mutters darkly.
/
School is a nightmare. Not only is Odd wearing something absolutely horrendous and she honestly doesn't remember even owning those colors, but her hands keep phasing in and out. Jeremie looks dead on his feet when she finds him, dark circles and pale face. He's inhaling a coffee and she doesn't want to ask how many he's already had. Judging by the way his hands jitter this has to be his fifth or sixth, a number he hasn't reached since he successfully brought Aelita to Earth. Aelita keeps yawning into her hand, looking only marginally more awake than Jeremie.
"I figured out the coding," Jeremie yawns. "All we need to do is restart the materialization program from Lyoko and your problem should be over." He blinks, staring off across the courtyard. "Uh, what is Odd, er, Yumi wearing?" he asks.
She groans, slaps a hand to her forehead. "Don't ask," she mutters. "Can this day get any worse?"
"Sh," Aelita says, "don't tempt fate."
/
She staggers as she hits the icy ground on Lyoko. She trips over the purple tail and groans. She thought she would've been in her own body when they were back on Lyoko. Next to her, Odd curses as he hits the ground. "How do you move in this get-up?" Odd demands.
"Like yours is any better," Yumi complains.
"Guys, focus, please?" Ulrich asks. "We have company."
Yumi looks up and sees the krankelots. "Great," she mutters.
It's not that she didn't know Odd was a good fighter. He'd proven himself on Lyoko over and over again, but she just hadn't realized how much skill was needed. She was used to her throwing fans, the weight and precision needed to arc them just right so they'd hit their target and boomerang back to her. She wasn't used to the way she had to hold her wrist to align the target, the difficulty with holding steady while still dodging.
Her arrows go wide, she overbalances and stumbles multiple times, she can't get used to the tail even though it's supposed to help with balance, theoretically. And then she starts disappearing in earnest and well, that's unfortunate. She ducks a krankrelot shot, sees her hands, wrists, forearms have phased out temporarily. She's reminded of the digital sea. Of being nothing.
It feels like the digital sea is calling her back.
"Yumi!"
She looks up to see Ulrich dodge in front of her, deflecting a krankrelot shot. Her hands are back, she shakes herself, tells herself to focus. Ulrich dodges, triplicates, and the krankrelots are finished. He stares at her and Odd.
"I thought Lyoko was supposed to fix it," he says, confused.
Aelita appears at the base of the tower, hurries over to them. "It won't work. We need to go to Sector Five," she explains.
"Better hurry," Odd states. He's looking at where his arm has disappeared, fingertips to shoulder. Yumi stares, watches her body disappearing in front of her eyes. It phases back in and he offers a small smile. "Not sure I want to haunt this place, yeah?"
Yumi wakes in the scanner, heart racing and head throbbing. She feels disoriented, like her stomach should be rolling but it doesn't. She blinks and rubs at her eyes as the scanner doors open. She can hear the soft sound of voices. All of a sudden Ulrich is standing in front of her, he gives her a relieved smile and offers her a hand.
"Hey, Yumi," he says.
"Hey," she replies. She takes his hand, lets him pull her to her feet. She sees Odd leaning against the scanner next to hers, face pale. "You okay?"
"Yeah, just a stomach ache," he groans. He gives her a shaky smile. "No offense, but I'm glad I'm not you anymore."
She laughs, ignoring the throbbing in her head. "Yeah, me too."
There's a squeal as the last scanner opens and Aelita flings herself out, wrapping her arms around both she and Odd. She drags Ulrich into the hug as well, against his protests. "It worked, it worked, it worked!" she exclaims. "We have to tell Jeremie, he was so worried. It's so good to see you both back to normal!"
Yumi wakes up to the familiar sound of her mother trying to drag Hiroki from bed. She shuts her alarm off and claims the bathroom before her brother does, stares at herself in the mirror. She presses her fingers to her face, runs them through her hair.
Her father looks at her when she comes downstairs, dressed in black jeans and a black t-shirt. "Not, uh, not feeling, uh, colorful today?" he asks.
She frowns. "Let's forget yesterday happened, yeah?"
"So you aren't in love?" He peers at her over his newspaper and she blinks.
"Love? No, why would I be in love?" she demands. She grabs an apple from the fruit bowl and her father sighs in relief.
"Just something your brother-"
"Hiroki," she growls.
"The important thing is that you aren't," her father states firmly.
Yumi sighs, making her way to school while plotting the best way to kill her brother while making it look like an accident. She'd been worried about Odd doing something to freak her family out, and okay, his clothing choice probably hadn't helped any, but Hiroki had no excuse.
"Paper?" Tamiya asks sweetly, holding one out as Yumi enters the school grounds. Yumi takes a copy absently, scanning the headlines. "I hope you like it!" Tamiya calls after her.
She sees Odd and Ulrich talking by the vending machine and makes her way over toward them. Overall, switching with Odd hadn't been horrible, she reasons. He'd done pretty well being her and she thinks she was okay pretending to be him. Aside from the colorful clothes and questionable texts, nothing had gone wrong.
She flips the page in her hand and freezes. There is a full-on photo spread of her and Ulrich. She blinks, trying to recall when this could have possibly been taken. She does not remember having her head on Ulrich's shoulder ever. She looks up, sees the boys watching her curiously. She remembers Sissi's snide comment, Milly and Tamiya's hounding questions…
"Odd!" she yells.