2-2: Spying

This one is placing emphasis on my romantic side, and as you can see I don't have much of one. You can tell which character I like, though! Sort of, anyway. I'll save the truth for a later story (if there is one).

(((-2-)))

Janika tapped her pencil on the blanks of her math homework. Then she sharpened the end. Then she doodled a cheetah on the back side. Then she sharpened her pencil again. It was easy. She could get it done later.

"I am going to hate myself for the rest of my life if I do this," she moaned. "But if I don't then I'll never get over it. Grrrrr! What should I do?"

Finally she closed her book and left the room. She knew she was going to bitterly regret this.

Odd answered the door as she knocked. "Yeah, Janika?"

"Er...is Ulrich there?" she murmured.

He gave her a funny look before nodding. "Sure."

The door opened wider and Janika saw the dark-haired boy sitting at a desk with headphones on. He took them off as soon as he saw her. "Yes?"

"Could I...possibly, you know..." She groped for something to say that wouldn't sound like she was desperate. "I need to talk to you."

"Uh, sure. Come on in."

She shook her head. "Could you take a walk with me?"

Odd rolled his eyes. "Just go, Ulrich. You don't have anything else to do."

They went walking outside. The sun was ready to set and the silence between them was deafening. Ulrich seemed nervous for some reason. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Um...Lyoko." Yeah, that's it. Stall for time. Beat around the bush for as long as possible. "I know you guys have explained it to me, but I still don't understand its purpose."

"Join the club," he chortled. "I think Jeremy and Aelita are the only ones who could tell you that. All I know is that someone created it, then shut it down, and we were the next ones to find it. We have no idea who or why. As long as the machine is on, X.A.N.A. is a threat...but we can't just abandon Aelita. She's our friend." They had reached the edge of the campus and Ulrich stopped. "Just tell me. What did you really want to talk about?"

Great. He had forced her into a corner. "Er...today in Lyoko...you pushed me out of the way. I just...wanted to know why."

Ulrich's brow creased. "Janika, you were in trouble. I reacted."

She looked down at her feet. "So...you didn't..." She couldn't finish it. What if he laughed or started avoiding her? But surely he knew! Quickly she thought of something else to say. "So you didn't want to go eat?"

"Eat?"

"Yeah, hotdogs. I think there's still a place open. I never ate dinner."

He smiled. "You should have asked Odd. He would have leaped at any chance to eat. His stomach is like an empty pit."

"Odd?" Now why would he say that?

They left campus chatting quietly, unaware that a pair of jealous brown eyes were watching from the shadows. Sissy stalked them noiselessly, steam hissing out her ears.

"How dare she! I'm her cousin, I'm prettier, I'm the most popular girl at school, I'm the one with the power! And he picks her?" Sissy's knuckles cracked and she ground her teeth together. "What are they talking about, anyway?"

Now they were sitting down on a bench outside the restaurant. She crept closer through the bushes and heard Janika speaking. "...and of course I didn't know what to do. I sent letters to all my relatives, but I don't have many. I'm really lucky my uncle decided to take me in. If he hadn't, I don't know where I'd be right now. Probably some boarding school in China or something."

"So you've had it rough?"

"Nah, not compared to you and your friends. At least I wasn't being pursued by some evil computer that had a grudge against me. If it wasn't for you guys the world might lay in ruins right now."

Sissy rolled her eyes. She'd read Ulrich's journal once, but the stuff was so far-out that she had laughed most of it off. If it hadn't been for those darn entries about how much he cared for Yumi she would have ignored the whole thing. She had to get between them!

But it looked like someone had already wormed there instead. Now Sissy had a new enemy. If it was possible for Janika to get to Ulrich, then there must be hope for herself! All she needed was something to coax him away. Something dire and cataclysmic. He had never rescued her from anything. Maybe if she pretended to be a maiden in distress, her knight in shining armor would sweep her away and be hers forever! Little hearts floated around her like balloons.

The balloons popped as she heard Janika talking again. Sissy was going to kill that little witch!

"What was it you guys saw today? The thing that fired at me. No one ever did bother to explain."

Ulrich sighed. "I don't know. It was invisible to Jeremy and I only caught a glance, but I'm pretty sure it's some new trick of X.A.N.A.'s. All I really saw were the spikes on its back." Sissy wished she knew what they were talking about. He stopped and looked at his 'date'. "Uh, Janika?"

"Yes?" she asked almost too softly to hear.

"Why are you leaning on me?"

"Oh, sorry." But she only sounded sorry that she had to move. Not that she moved very far. Sissy bit her lip and wrung her hands together to keep from yanking her cousin off the bench.

Yes, yes I know, Sissy doesn't play much of a part. But in all honesty she doesn't do much in the TV show except scream and create comic relief.