"Odd! Wake up!" Ulrich shouted in my ear.

I yelped as I jumped. Was that just a dream? Jeremy cleared his throat as his fingers drummed against his laptop.

"Sorry…" We were in the park today talking about Lyoko; I must have fallen asleep while he was talking about materialization again.

"Anyways," Jeremy continued, "I think I might have come up with a formula to bring Aelita to the real world. I just need to…."

As Jeremy continued with his materialization talk, which was always like another language to me, my thoughts drifted off to Hope. I really hadn't seen her for the past couple of days, but it seemed like years. My mind wandered to my conversation with Ulrich last night in our dorm,

"Wow, you must really have it bad for her." Ulrich said as I brought my knees up to my chest.

It was late, and once again I couldn't stop thinking about Hope. Ulrich was sitting on the edge of his bed on the other side of the room while leaned against the wall on my own bed.

"I guess…" I muttered looking down at my knees.

"What do you mean you guess?" He said with a smirk, "I haven't been able to get you to shut up about her all day."

"It's just…." I knew I was blushing, and the fact Ulrich could see it wasn't much of a help.

"'It's just' what? Look at you; you blush every time you or someone else says her name." He started laughing.

"I do not." I said looking up at him.

"Really?" he laughed then said very slow, "Hope."

I felt a rush of heat surge to my face.

"See!" he exclaimed, "Just admit it, you're nuts about her."

I groaned and buried my face into my pillow. How could she make me feel this way? I mean, she took my wallet, I never did get that back, I found out she has lesbian mothers that want her to be gay, her birth mother's dead, her father's presumed dead, she cuts herself, she's a thief, her friend threatened to 'rip my dick off' if I tried anything with her, if she were anyone else my mind would be screaming to stay away from her; but for some reason, I can't stop thinking of her. All logic tells me to stay away, yet I keep going back to her. How could I actually have a crush on her if I've only known her the past few days? It hasn't even been a week! But for some weird reason I want to be with her, there's just something about her I can't turn away from. I had been so busy wondering why I liked Hope I hadn't noticed Ulrich singing "first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Odd wit the baby carriage!"

"Shut up!" I shouted as I threw my pillow at him.

"Odd are you listening?" Jeremy asked

"Huh?" I looked at him, "Oh um…great?"

"What's on your mind?" He asked with a sigh.

"Huh? Nothings on my mind," except a certain red head, "what makes you ask?"

"Maybe the fact he just asked what we should do if the materialization works this time." Ulrich snickered.

"Oh! Um…"

"Come on Odd, what's on your mind?" Jeremy asked, "It's pretty obvious your mind is anywhere but here."

"Well…." I opened my mouth to tell them but something caught my attention.

"Come on Kane! I said I was sorry!" A familiar voice shouted as I looked behind me.

It was Samantha, who was chasing Hope, who seemed very mad.

"'Sorry' my ass!" Hope shouted back, "That was way over the line and you know it!"

"God Kane! Why can't you take an apology like any normal person and not act like a snake the just got its tail stepped on?"

"Maybe it's because you insulted my child!"

I felt a twinge of pain in my heart when she said that. Why did that hurt? It's not like she's my girlfriend…

"I did not insult Joel! If you want to count it as an insult, count it as an insult towards his father!"

"How is that supposed to be directed to Tom?" Hope shouted, turning to Samantha, "'At least I didn't get knocked up by some sleaze bag drop out!' That's what you said! Gee, excuse me if I find that insulting!"

Hope threw her arms up in the air and stormed off, leaving Samantha sighing where she stood.

"Wow." Ulrich said, "That was some fight."

"I'm going after her." I said as I got up.

"Odd, it's none of our business." Jeremy said, "Leave those girls alone."

"That was Hope." I said as I walked the direction Hope went, "I'll catch up with you guys later."

"Yo blondie!" Samantha called to me.

"What was that fight about?" I asked

"Oh that. You heard it?"

"How could I not? You two were practically screaming."

"Well, that's true. But either way, it's none of your business really." With that Samantha turned around and walked away.

I started looking for Hope wondering if she was okay. When I finally found her she was sitting against a tree rubbing her arm.

"Damn…" I heard her mutter.

"Hey." I said, "Long time, no see."

"Odd!" She gasped and hid her left arm behind her back.

"What?" I asked, "Why are you hiding your arm?"

"N-no reason." She said tugging at her sleeve behind her back.

I had a feeling why she was doing this, but I didn't want to offend her.

"Let me see your arm." I said

She waved her right arm around.

"Your other arm…" I said

"Since when were you my boss?" She snapped.

I didn't say anything, I just looked her straight in the eyes.

"Oh fine…" she sighed as she slowly showed me her left arm.

She rolled her sleeve back further as I gasped. There were seven cuts, about two or three inches long and about an inch apart, that went from her wrist up her arm. She looked away from me.

"Oh god Hope…" I put my arms around her, which I guess caught her by surprise because she gasped, "Why do you do that?" I asked as I pulled her closer to me.

"I…" She began but pushed me away, "Why do you care?!"

Why do I not? "I do care Hope."

"Yea right." She said as she turned her back to me.

"Hope… I do." I said as I wrapped my arms around her.

"Why?" She asked, keeping her hands to her sides.

"…I'm not sure why. I just know I do." I told her.

"How do I know that isn't just some weird pick up line?" She asked as I felt something wet drop on my hand.

She was crying; I knew she was.

"Hope, I do care about you."

Hope moved her hands onto mine and leaned into me, making me hold her tighter. She felt so warm…and she smelt so good. This was the first time I had noticed her scent. She smelt like… like cherries. Cherries and some kind of flower; I licked my lips as I felt my mouth go dry. I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to kiss her so much...