Odd was sure of a few things in his life. He loved his dog, he loved to eat, and he loved Ulrich Stern from the first time they met. He knew Ulrich had found him annoying at first, but that just made him seem cooler. Besides, Odd grows on people like a fungus. A very talkative fungus.
Over time they actually grew to be good friends and Odd couldn't have been more delighted. Maybe they could become more than friends? But then… a year passed. It became painfully obvious Ulrich was tragically heterosexual and head over heels for their best friend, Yumi.
It hurt Odd a little to think that he would never get to act on his feelings. It was like a small splinter had been lodged in his heart and he couldn't figure out how to tweeze it out. Some days it was more manageable, but when he saw the way that Ulrich looked at Yumi and not him it felt like it grew a twin. He didn't resent Yumi, she was tall and cool and pretty and all the things girls should be, but...she was the opposite of Odd. In about every way.
Until something went wrong with the scanners on a return trip to Lyoko. And suddenly Odd was tall and cool and pretty and everything a girl should be. He had body swapped with Yumi.
"I guess there's a little bug in the rematerialization program." Jeremie said nervously.
"You call this a little bug?" Yumi screeched from Odd's body. "We can't stay this way!"
Odd was immediately nervous but sure this was something Einstein could figure out. He'd mastered a super computer in the ninth grade, surely he could find a way to put them back in their correct bodies. "W-what if we went back to Lyoko and de-virtualized all over again? Maybe everything will go back to normal?" He suggested.
Jeremie typed rapidly on the computer, his fingers moving like spastic spiders that knew gymnastics. It made an error noise and a red exclamation mark flashed on screen. Odd had only vaguely paid attention when Jeremie used the computer but he knew that was never good.
"And what if the program messes up again and you don't have any bodies at all this time?" Jeremie pushed up his glasses and resumed typing faster as Aelita laid a concerned hand on his shoulder and scanned the monitor. Odd envied the ease with which they could show they cared about one another. Guys at the school weren't allowed to touch unless they wanted to be called some slurs not suitable for TV-PG audiences.
"Okay, bad idea." Odd acquiesced.
"So what do we do then?" Ulrich leaned into the monitor trying to decipher the wall of code Jeremie was frantically working on.
"Gotta fix the program." Jeremie stuck the tip of his tongue out of the corner of his mouth and brushed Ulrich aside.
"How long will it take you? A couple hours at the most?" Odd scratched his back absently. Something in the hard to reach middle kept poking him. Maybe this could all be over soon and he could stop looking like a lost mall goth.
"Um...if I work through the night, it might be ready tomorrow morning?" Jeremie surmised.
"WHAT?" Yumi yelled before Odd could even process what had been said. "You mean I'm going to have to sleep in a guy's body?"
Odd ignored Jeremie's attempt at a quip and snapped at Yumi, "And if you haven't noticed, I have a dynamite body! Better than yours!" He was getting really frustrated, he didn't even like girls that much, why couldn't he have switched with someone that would actually be fun? He stopped himself from thinking about switching bodies with Ulrich and tabled it for his personal private time later once he'd gotten his own body back. That stupid thing kept itching where he couldn't reach. "For example, somethings itching me in my back! It's uh…" He finally got a good grip on it and realized, "It's uh...I think it's the strap to your…."
Yumi flushed brighter than the artificially colored tomato soup the cafeteria served every other Wednesday. "Don't you DARE take it off, you hear?!"
Odd saw Ulrich's face slowly start to match Yumi's as he processed what was happening. Odd wondered if he was more jealous that he might get to see Yumi's bra or that he basically had a Freaky Friday all access pass to the girl he'd been crushing on all year.
"Don't you guys worry about it. I'll be helping Jeremie tonight. Everything'll be fine by tomorrow morning." Aelita cut in between the two.
"I hope so!" Odd grunted. As if he even liked girls. He wasn't sure who would be more annoyed by the next morning. Him, Yumi or Ulrich.