William watched from his window as Mary sneaked back to the dormitory. She had started to avoid others and he did not know what he could do to help. It was nearly a miracle that he had gotten her to stay at Kadic; an attempt at getting her back closer to the others could make things worse when it could be that she just needed her own space right now.

Perhaps he should talk with her nevertheless, or at least ask if everything is all right.

When Mary was in the dormitory's staircase, she felt her phone vibrate and turned back. She frowned upon checking who it was from. William?

A part of her would have wanted to put the phone back into the pocket and just walk to her room, but curiosity and the small chance that it was a X.A.N.A. alert after all made her open the message.
Do you have time to drop by here? I'd like to talk

Could it be a trap? It could be, Mary pondered while she settled to lean against the wall. After all, she had already been in one situation that could have been today, so her luck had most likely completely ran out. But if it was X.A.N.A., she would already know through an alert... unless Aelita and Jeremy were unconscious, that is.

On the other hand, things could not get worse from here. Ok, I'll come there
OK :)

Mary sighed, put the phone back to her pocket and started to climb the stairs towards the boys' floor.

William sprung up from his bed upon hearing the knock and hurried to open the door. "Hi."
"Hi." Mary stepped into the room. For a small while, her eyes were drawn to Charlie's bed, which Jim had brought there after Delmas had decided to put new students also to one student rooms in order to save space in the dormitory — and thus raise Kadic's maximum capacity.
"Still hard to get used to the fact that it's not lonely here, huh?" William grinned.
"Yeah, it is a bit," Mary remarked. "I'd already gotten used to you having the whole room for yourself."
William closed the door. "If Delmas had tried to put anyone else than Charlie here, it would still be."
Mary snorted. "I can imagine you fighting against the decision."
"So can I." William looked at this room. "It has been tough to get used to this. The last time I had a roommate was... years ago. Back in the early days."
"The early days?"
"I mean, back when my folks started to send me to boarding schools." William shook his head. "Nothing came out of being with a roommate back then..." He turned to look at his friend again. "That's it for reminiscence, though. Is everything okay with you?"
"Yeah, everything's okay," Mary answered, surprised by the sudden question. "Why wouldn't it be?"
"Well, recently... a lot has happened." William shrugged. "You've spent less time with us, so I decided to ask."
"Right." Mary nodded. "Everything is all right."
William had spoken that lie himself so many times that he saw right through his friend. "Are you sure? You do know that if it's something you don't want to tell the whole group, I can keep it a secret from the others."
"I can't put you in that position," Mary stated immediately.
"So something is wrong."
Mary cursed.
"Mary, listen, you know that you can trust me, right?"
"I do, but I don't want that you end up getting involved in this mess."
"But I want to get involved in this mess, whatever it is. I am your friend and I don't want to watch when you try to deal with it alone." William put his hands on Mary's shoulders. "You have been there for me. Let me be there for you."
Mary sighed. "Fine." She gathered her thoughts together to find the words for the situation. "This family case bothers Eleonora and I don't want to hurt her because of it."
"Have you talked with her about it?"
"No. It'd just make things worse especially when she tries to hide it all the time." Mary swallowed and decided to let the truth be heard for the first and last time. "It's difficult enough that my father lives here, but now my uncle has moved here too. I can't tell Eleonora; it'd just make all of this worse."
"If you don't tell and it comes out at some point, it'll probably be worse for everyone," William noted.
"Maybe. On the other hand, maybe Eleonora would understand... I don't know." Mary shrugged lightly. "There is no right answer. If X.A.N.A. doesn't let Eleonora get in contact with her mother, I'll hurt her anyway. I can only try to make the choice that'll hurt her less."
"I think you should tell," William stated.
"I can't, at least not now." Mary looked at the floor. "Maybe I never can... and if Eleonora should not know, then not the others either."
There clearly were no choices. William nodded. "Fine. If you think that the others shouldn't be told, I'll keep your secret."
"Thank you."

Sophie returned from studying only when Mary was already asleep. Even though she, too, knew that something had been wrong for some time already, she did not interfere with the matter.

She only trusted that her friend would survive everything like she had done so far.

/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Lyokostar story series and its original characters (c) Me/