.:/AN/:. Sorry, my train of thought was still boarding at the station... get it? Boarding at the station- aw, forget it. Anyway, here's the next chapter. But, before I forget, I'd like to thank the reviewers for their help. I totally forgot that I had Yumi run to her dorm (even though she didn't have one) and I still asked. Stupid, stupid stupid! Oh, you don't have to listen to me anymore, I'm just gonna keep calling myself stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid...---

Chapter 9: Time To Move On

Jeremie's POV:

"So, here's how it turns out: You are a silver, yellow and black ninja. Your weapons are the star spikes and knifes that you throw at the enemies, as well as a sword, which is on your back. You have the ability of transportation, which allows you to transfer from one tower in the region to another in the same or another region. You are able to take people with you and you can also do it outside of the tower. But remember: You can only do it once, so don't waste it, and it won't allow you to fight while your there. Understand?"

Lance nodded his head. He was still staring at the computer screen which had a digital image of what he would look like in Lyoko.

"Hey, Jeremie?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you explain the whole fighting part of Lyoko again?"

Sure," I said, smiling. "See, X.A.N.A. has monsters that try to prevent us from deactivating a tower. They attack us by shooting lasers at us. The damage from the attacks are based on what kind of monster attacked. If it's a Hornet, it's attack can either do 10 LP of damage or it can poison you and wipe out all of your life points. That also goes with Roachsters, except they don't have the poison. The Crabs attack does 20 LP as well as the Cubes, but they can also freeze you. We're pretty sure that if you get frozen, then it wipes out your LP, but we may be wrong." I noticed Lance's confused face and sighed. "Basically, you don't want to get hit."

"Okay, I think I've got it. Um... I think it's time for our next classes, right? I've got Math next, what about you?"

"Me, too. Why don't we head out, now, huh? I just need to save this... okay, let's go."

We got into the elevator and that's when I realized it.

Crap! Ulrich also has Math next! Perfect, just perfect.

I must have made a face or something because Lance said, "Jeremie? Are you alright? You look sick..."

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I just realized that I'm hungry and I left my snack in my dorm. I'll catch up with you, okay? I might as well see if I left something else there."

We reached the exit and I stepped out in front of him.

"See you!"

I ran ahead and got to the Boys dorms. I was coming across Odd and Ulrich's dorm when I noticed that the door was open.

And that Ulrich was in there.

"Oh, sorry..." I muttered. I had my hand on the door, and was about to close it.

Ulrich didn't even seem to notice I was there. He continued to pull things out of his drawer. Then I saw a number of boxes littering the floor...

"You're moving?" I asked, confused.

"Uh... yeah," he said, sounding like he thought I was stupid or something.

"Why?"

"Well, I figure, if I leave the gang, then that means that I'm not a part of the gang anymore." He was talking as if he was explaining something very confusing to a little kid. "So, if I'm not a part of the group anymore, then I shouldn't be sharing a room with a person that still is a part of the gang." Then he gave up the nice-only-to-little-kids voice and stood up straight, facing me. "I'm transferring to another room, Jer, so I can get out of your hair completely. Got that?"

"But... you don't need to..."

"I've already confirmed it with the Principal. I'm moving to another room. I'll I need to do is pack my stuff and unload it in the other dorm. So, if you'll excuse me..." he went back to packing.

I wasn't even gonna bother talking to him, so I continued on my way to my dorm. By the time I got there, I realized I hadn't even bothered to ask where he was transferring to. He probably wouldn't have told me anyway, I said to myself. He wouldn't want us to show up so that we could we could talk to him or something.

I went into my dorm to make sure that I wasn't missing anything that I needed. As far as I was concerned, I had everything I needed, so I headed back the way I came.

When I got to Odd and Ulrich's dorm, the door was locked and I would've bet Aelita's life that Ulrich's stuff was absent. I slowly walked by Now-Only-Odd's dorm and headed to class.

I was coming up to the class just in time to see Ulrich and Lance staring each other down. I stopped, worried as to what was going through each others mind. Mostly, I was worried about Lance. Ulrich had said, not directly, that he dispised his very existence, so I thought that he would act on it.

Then, I noticed something about Lance that made my heart stop. He didn't seem like the Lance that we supposedly got to know so well. It was like he was a zombie, his blank face and his lifeless stare. It scared me so much that my first thought was: X.A.N.A

"Uh... Lance?" I asked, hesitant of interrupting this moment. "What are you doing?"

Then it was like he just snapped out of it. He turned to look at me and that stare was gone. The Lance that I thought I knew was back and looking at me with a confused expression.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I was just talking to Ulrich," he said in a happy-go-lucky voice.

"About what?" I said, trying not to sound as if I was accusing him.

"Oh, just the next class. I asked him where he was sitting and he hasn't answered me yet."

We both looked at him. My look was just to see what he was thinking while Lance was talking to me. Lance, it seemed, was giving him that look that meant, agree with me, or else.

Ulrich started at Lance, as if he wanted nothing more than to give him a knuckle sandwich. "Near the window... sit there and I'll send you through it," he replied in that low, dangerous tone that made my skin crawl.

"Oh, thanks! I'll keep that in mind the next time I don't want to use the door," Lance replied coolly.

I didn't like the turn this conversation was making so I tried to stop it in its tracks.

"C'mon, Lance, we don't want to be late for class," I said, taking a step toward him. "You should go, too, Ulrich, or you'll get into a lot of trouble."

"Sure, Jer. I'm so lucky to have a friend like you, unlike someone I can think of." He was speaking loudly, so that Ulrich could hear him as he walked away.

When Ulrich was gone, I turned to Lance.

"Why were you doing that?" I was shocked as well as angry. Usually, Lance seemed to be withdrawn from the world, almost as if he didn't exist. Now he was being loud and obnoxious. Weird...

"Doing what? C'mon, Jer, we're going to be late." He started walking in the direction Ulrich went.

I didn't want him to catch up to Ulrich and end up with a bloody nose, so I hurried after him.

"Class! Class, settle down, please! Just because there's five minutes left of class, doesn't mean you can act like a bunch of wild monkeys!"

The class was doing a project in Science, so they took the time to goof off after a careless glance at the clock from Odd.

Odd started to make monkey noises and Ulrich, who was still sitting next to him, started to scratch his underarm in monkey-fashion. It would have made you think that they were still best buds, but I knew that Ulrich was just goofing off, just like he would've if someone else was making the monkey noises. I started to feel guilty again...

A beeping noise started to come from my backpack. I knew what that beeping meant. X.A.N.A had launched an attack and my computer had picked it up.

I caught Odd's eye and dug out my cellphone. I paged him, so that I didn't draw attention to us, and he got the message. He started to turn around to tell Ulrich, then stopped himself. He seemed to have forgotten that Ulrich was no longer apart of the Kick-X.A.N.A.'s-Ass club.

I turned away, unable to see the look on Odd's face. He looked so torn...

I paged Yumi.

Right when I was about to put my cell away, I remembered that we also gained a member after losing one. I paged Lance. He got it and gave me the thumb's up signal. Now, we could see what he could do...

.:/AN/:. Oooo, what's gonna happen? What did X.A.N.A do now? What's up with Lance? What's up with my questions? Tune in next time, on Code: Lyoko- One Door Opens As Another Door Closes by painin uranus!!!