Chapter 11 Sleeping Beauty (Don't worry, I'm not giving up on the YxU relationship!)

How could SISSI be in here? Ulrich wondered, now trying harder than ever to hold his breath and remain as quiet as humanly possible. She now took out a small makeup kit and began adorning herself in the mirror.
"There," Sissi said, smiling and kissing at the air. Ulrich wanted to die. He was trapped in the car with the one person he would least like to be with, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Kill me now, he thought, sighing in despair.
"Now I've got to look pretty enough for my Ulrich dear to come running towards me after that crazy freak brings me to him," she said out loud.
You wish. Not all of the makeup in the world would make me do that. Ulrich was suddenly angry with her. She had called who may be their only hope in the world crazy and a freak. He almost immediately felt ashamed. After all, he had been suspicious of her. Sissi was rummaging through her purse.
She probably doesn't even realize the importance of what's going on.
"There it is!" the girl exclaimed, taking out a pink book and a fancy gift pen. She sat in her seat, scratching at the surface of her paper contentedly, occasionally sighing to herself. When she was done, she lied back in her seat and took out a photograph. It was Ulrich's school picture. He despised that picture. His mother had sent him a ridiculously embarrassing suit to wear and he had to comb his usually messy hair. It didn't look a thing like what he normally looked like from day to day. From what he could see, the picture had various smudges all over it, apparently from Sissi's lip-gloss. It made him feel awkward and sick at the same time. She hugged the photograph, let the seat down, and closed her eyes. Ulrich panicked. He was on the other side of the back-seat floor crushed under her seat, unable to reposition himself. If she were to open her eyes, she would see him and he would be caught. In a few minutes, however, she was sound asleep. Ulrich had to remind himself of what time it was. He checked his watch. 3:30 AM. (I know that on the show he doesn't wear a watch, but for the sake of the moment, let's say he does.)
Well, what now, Ulrich? he asked himself. You're trapped in a car, awaiting inevitable doom by either Sissi waking up or Hope returning to the car. Ulrich put his arms on the backseat and the front seat, and sat up. His hand brushed over the pink book that Sissi had wrote in.
This must be that diary Yumi told me about. He grabbed it, and although he didn't feel comfortable about violating someone's privacy again, he opened it. Sissi wrote in loopy, swoopy cursive. She was also the type of person who dots their i's with little hearts. He groaned over the overly girlish handwriting, and began reading the first entry out of pure curiosity and boredom.
Dear Diary,
Today was the first day of the new school year. It was awful. All of my friends went to a different school and now I'm all alone. I lazed through the day, listening to the teachers make the same boring speeches they make every year. I thought it was going to be the worst year ever until Mrs. Hertz's science class. (Okay, excuse me for being a boy and not knowing how this is supposed to sound, but here goes…) I looked up and saw this cute guy staring up front at the board. His name was Ulrich. I've only seen him a few times last year because he was never in any of my classes, so I didn't really notice him before. The seat next to him was empty and I thought I might go sit next to him, but at that same moment, a new boy sat in the seat. He was really short and wore abstract purple clothes. I thought he was gay until he started staring at some girl across the room. That boy's name was Odd. What kind of mother names their kid "Odd"? Anyway, he and Ulrich were always talking to each other in class. I overheard Odd making really dumb jokes and Ulrich laughing at them. I guess they were friends and Ulrich met him over the break or something. I decided that I didn't like that Odd kid.
Ulrich almost chuckled at the thought of the first day of the new school year. He and Odd were initially pen-pals until he coerced his parents to let him move out of NZ to go to Kadic. All during that class they were making jokes about Mrs. Hertz. He turned to the next entry.
Dear Diary,
I got some friends today, if you can call them that. I was complaining to Daddy about not having any friends and how I'd be depressed all year and my grades would decline, so he promised me he'd arrange for me to meet some new people. The two he got for me were not what I had in mind at all. For starters, they were both boys. One was extremely geeky and had pimples all over his face. The other was kind of dumb and always had this blank look on his face. We had met in the ice cream parlor in town, as sort of a 'blind date'. We talked, although I was kind of disappointed. I didn't want to hurt their feelings though, because they were the only ones who wanted to be my friends. The geek's name was Herb and he had a knack for building robots for the annual competition, but he somehow always ended up in second place. The weird kid was Nicolas, and as it turns out, he was a pretty talented musician. He even played a number on the table with some utensils. Well, I'll talk to you later, Jim's in my wing telling everyone that it's lights out.
Ulrich always wondered how those three got to be friends. No wonder it was by completely random chance. He skipped forward a few pages.
Dear Diary,
Today was really weird. Okay, here's what happened: Remember that Odd kid and Ulrich? Well, my gang and I were watching them in the courtyard today. They were sitting at a bench, when suddenly this blonde kid with thick glasses and a blue turtleneck came running over to them. He showed them something on his laptop. Now, I've seen this one before. His name is Jeremie and he was in my history class last year. He's a computer whiz—always on his laptop, and talking like Einstein in math. Herb looked pretty pissed when he saw him, so I guessed he was the one that always seemed to beat him at the robot contest. There was some Asian gothic girl leaning on a tree near their bench. She walked over and said something. Jeremie looked hesitant for some reason, and then he nodded his head in agreement. They all looked around for a moment, and we looked the other way so they wouldn't know we were watching. Next thing I knew, they were all making a break for it towards the park. I signaled for Nick and Herb to come with me as we ran after them. We tailed them for a while, always making sure they wouldn't notice us following. Try as we might, though, they still lost us. It was like they disappeared into thin air. Earlier this night, I looked out my window and saw the same bunch carrying a bunch of equipment and a few skateboards towards the park. I was too tired to run out and chase them, though. Speaking of which, I'm getting really sleepy. Good night.
He cringed over this one. That was the day that Jeremie picked up the distress signal from Aelita. He approached him and Odd and said that he needed some help, and then showed us the signal. He had deciphered it into a message that said "SOS! I am in dire need of help. I am at the car factory on the river. Please hurry, this is urgent! Once you arrive, there is an elevator near the main entrance. I hope it still works. If you go into it, you will notice a keypad. Enter the code 9262. This will give you access to the lower levels of the factory, where I am located. You will know what to do after the doors re-open. Come as soon as you get this message, for my life, as well as everyone in this city's, is in danger." Ulrich had almost expected it to say "Luke, you are my only hope!" At first he thought that Jeremie was joking, but from the serious look on his face, he knew it was for real. That day was also the day that Yumi came into his life. She was eavesdropping from the tree, and said that she'd go along—she needed an adventure in her life. He knew a way to the factory because the manhole they use was near a popular make out spot in the park. (Yeah, yeah, I KNOW. I had to explain it somehow.) His older brother told him about it, because he and his girlfriend had gone through it and wound up at the factory before. Ulrich didn't like to think about what happened next. Once they finished following Aelita's instructions, the elevator stopped at the darkened super calculator room. It was dusty and full of cobwebs when they turned on the lights. But when Jeremie saw the computer, he went straight to it and turned it on. They eventually had to go to Lyoko to stop a band of blocks that were attacking Aelita. It was rough going since they were all so inexperienced. That night they went to town to get stuff to make it easier to get to the factory, since they knew their call to duty could happen anytime. They set up the ropes and placed the skateboards, and cleaned up the three secret levels of the factory some. Ulrich read on like this for a while longer, the entries ranging from pure hate of Yumi to Sissi's empty bragging.
Just then, Ulrich's cell phone rang. He whispered a curse, instantly pressing the talk button. Sissi snored, and Ulrich was safe once again.
"H-hello?" he whispered.
"Ulrich!" It was Odd. "Where are you?"
"Keep your voice down! I'm in Hope's car, parked at the factory. I'm in a bit of trouble."
"Why? Are there some EMPIRE guards or something?"
"No… it's-it's Sissi!"
"Sissi! What are you talking about?"
"Hope picked her and your dog up from the school. She's sleeping on me."
"SHE'S WHAT!" Ulrich heard a shriek from the background. He cringed again. It was Yumi. "GIVE ME THAT PHONE! GIVE ME THAT PHONE! Ulrich, explain yourself."
"No, Yumi, it's not like that. She fell asleep in her chair and reclined it back, and its right on top of me. She doesn't know I'm here."
"Well get out of there for crying out loud!"
"I'm at THE FACTORY'S PARKING LOT! If I got out, I'd be shot as soon as my foot touched the ground!"
"You don't have to yell at me."
Ulrich mentally slapped himself. Not only had he yelled at Yumi, he'd done it really loud. Sissi's eyes snapped open.
"ULRICH!"
"Um… sleeping beauty's up and she has bed head. Gotta go." Ulrich ended his call. Sissi was staring at him blankly. She let the seat back up, and then turned back around.
"Oh, Ulrich dear! I missed you so much!" she squealed, embracing the helpless Ulrich in a big hug. "I knew you'd come back for me!"
Ulrich groaned.
When's Hope coming back?