A/N: Wow it's been a long time since I updated this story. Oh well ducks pitchforks of angry fans, just read and review. Any Teen Titans fans reading this, yes I did get the title from those two episodes. But this aftershock will be a lot more pleasant.
Aftershock Aftershock Aftershock Aftershock Aftershock Aftershock Aftershock
The next day, Ulrich sat in shock, reviewing last night's events. He was seated on one of the benches, his elbow propped up on the armrests. His brown eyes stared across the campus, not really taking anything in. His reminiscing ended abruptly when another person sat down next to him.
"Hey Ulrich! Where were you at breakfast?" asked Odd curiously, glancing over his friend's shoulder to see what he was staring at.
"Busy."
"Alright, alright. Don't tell me and I'll still find out," boasted Odd.
Just then the gates to the campus opened and Yumi cheerfully walked in. She spotted them and waved before spotting a friend from another class and running off to chat with her.
"Why is Yumi so chummy with you again?" asked Odd. Ulrich's head had swiveled around to watch Yumi's conversation. His eyes were unusually wide, and when he tried to speak it came out in a low groan.
"What was that?"
Ulrich quickly recovered. "Nothing." His throat was dry, as all of the liquid was now running down his face as the form of sweat.
Odd examined him from behind. "You're acting just like Jeremie when Taelia showed up." He sat back and thought for a moment before he fell off of the bench in surprise.
"Did… you… did you… did you do what I think you did? Did you do it?" he asked. He was in such shock that he was having trouble stringing words together.
Ulrich, panicking, immediately responded, "No." Moments after that he realized he should have played stupid and asked what was he was talking about. He had just practically admitted to Odd's unspoken guess.
"You did!" Odd grinned, and began to do a weird victory dance. "Alright Ulrich! I knew you had it in you buddy. Now how was it? Give me the juicy details," he commanded, leaning over to stare at Ulrich's expression.
Ulrich was annoyed at Odd's reaction, and at the moment he didn't want to tell Odd anything. Yumi started to head towards them, making perfect timing.
"Later," he whispered. "I promised Yumi I wouldn't tell anything."
"Come on!"
"She's coming! Later."
"Fine."
"What are you guys so happy about?" asked Yumi.
Odd opened his mouth to speak, but Ulrich beat him to it. "He's just so happy that there's a big history test today." He winked at Yumi, who got the joke.
"Oh yeah! I stayed up all night studying. I don't even know if Jeremie will be able to ace it," Yumi replied somewhat casually.
"Speaking of Jeremie, where is he?" asked Odd, trying to get off of the subject. He was terribly nervous about the exam that he had forgotten.
"Probably studying for it."
"I'm gonna fail it! And if I fail another test, then Mom and Dad are making me move back home!" Odd cried in dismay.
At the same time, Yumi and Ulrich let out their fits of laughter. "You actually believed us?" asked Ulrich.
Odd was annoyed at them, and had irritated look on his face during their periods of laughter. "Ha, ha, ha, very funny," he replied sarcastically.
"Seriously, what were you guys so happy about before?" asked Yumi, now having recovered from the laughing.
"Oh that. We were… um… we had thought up of a new prank to pull on Sissy," Odd quickly made up.
"Cool? What's the plan?"
"Oh… we… we're, um… going to, uh… put a bunch of dead frogs in her locker from Chemistry. It works out perfectly since we go to our lockers after that class."
"When are you going to do it?"
"We haven't worked that out yet… since… since her locker is halfway across the school from the Chemistry room. Getting the frogs is easy; getting them into her locker is hard. We were… uh, thinking of putting them into a bag that isn't transparent, and then casually put them in there when she's preoccupied."
"Why were you so down Ulrich?" asked Yumi curiously.
"Because… because I'm the one who's going to have to distract Sissy while Odd gets them into the locker."
"Well I can't do it. She doesn't find me so attractive and such a teen heartthrob that's reserved only for herself. Unlike you." Odd changed his tone of voice to a high-pitched impression of Sissy's voice. Just then, an irritating voice came from across the schoolyard.
"Oh Ulrich? What I think of him Herb? Well I think he's so attractive and such a teen heartthrob that's only reserved for me."
At Sissy's uncanny resemblance to Odd's made-up sentence, the three of them started to laugh. Unfortunately, Sissy heard them and marched right over to see what was going on.
"What is so funny?" she demanded. Her two cronies Herb and Nicholas were right behind her, leering as best as they could.
"Nothing, oh stupid one."
"STUPID! Ulrich," she said turning to him, her tone completely changing, "tell your friend here to be quiet."
Odd looked at Ulrich, sniggering. "Oh yes Ulrich, tell me to be quiet."
"Why don't both of you shut up?" Ulrich was getting frustrated at Odd for getting him into most of this mess.
"Ulrich, I want you to know how I feel about you. For real," said Sissy.
"We've heard already."
"No you have not! If you have, then tell me."
"I'm so attractive… something about a heartthrob… blah, blah, blah. That's about it," Ulrich replied.
For some reason this made Sissy happy. "There was a lot more than that Ulrich! That proves that you didn't hear my speech."
"Either that or I just didn't listen."
Sissy scowled before stalking away, causing Herb and Nicholas to run after her. "Hey Sissy wait!" they cried.
At that moment the bell rang, causing Yumi to wave them off before sprinting to class. "Bye! Good luck with your plan!" she called over her shoulder as she hoisted up her back-pack and entered the school.
Once she was put of earshot, Ulrich turned to Odd and glared at him. "Oh thanks a lot Odd. Now we actually have to go through with it."
Odd blushed in embarrassment. "I didn't know that she actually would believe us!"
"She's our friend. Of course she was going to believe us!" Ulrich slapped his forehead in frustration. 'Wow he is stupid. At least this got him off the subject of me and Yumi,' thought Ulrich. "Well you better think up of something. And before fifth period."
But when he looked back at Odd, expecting a look of pure terror at having to think of something, he saw a look of unadulterated evil.
"I already have something." Odd grinned and rubbed his hands together. But before he could tell what he had planned, an annoying voice came from the front of the school. "Hey! You two! Get over here!" Jim was signaling to them. They reluctantly walked over to him.
"Did you know that class started 5 minutes ago?" Jim asked.
"Heh, heh, heh… Jim… I didn't know that you had first period off…" Odd said, blushing again.
"Yeah. I do every morning. Now get to your classes!"
Ulrich and Odd ran off towards the doors. "Wow, we actually go off without a punishment—" Odd started, but he was cut off.
"Oh yeah, detention for both of you!"
"Scratch that," muttered Ulrich. "Now, where were you?"
"Oh yeah. You know how Herb likes Sissy? Well this is what we're going to do…"
The bell for sixth period rang, and the Science class dismissed, everyone heading for their locker. Odd grabbed Ulrich, Jeremie, and Yumi, who had all been informed about the plan, and headed for the nearest corner to confirm the last details. Several kids noticed that Odd's book bag was… well there was a dead frog head sticking out of the top. Odd hastily pushed in back in.
"Okay, here comes Herb. Come on!" And Odd led the way out of the shadows and stopped Herb in his tracks.
"Come on Herb! We don't have time to talk to those losers. Well, except Ulrich." Sissy batted her eyelashes at Ulrich.
He eyed her as if she was crazy. "No way."
Sissy pouted before repeating, "Come on Herb!" and disappearing around the corner. Herb was about to follow, grumbling, when Odd asked, "Having Sissy problems?"
Herb was about to deny it, but as he opened his mouth, he shut it and looked at his knees. "Yeah. She won't give me any time to talk to her."
"Well we can help," replied Odd cheerfully.
Herb looked up, but when he spotted Ulrich, he said, "No way. I am not working with him." He pointed to Ulrich, an accusing look in his eyes. Ulrich was quite surprised at this.
"Ulrich doesn't like Sissy. And if we get her to like you, then she'll forget about him," pointed out Odd.
Herb shrugged.
Odd took that as accepting to their prank. "Okay, we'll do all of the work. Just stand around that corner and by the time Sissy walks around the corner, she'll be all yours."
Herb noticed Odd's bag. "What's with your backpack? It seems kinda lumpy."
"It's filled with perfume, make-up, and other girl stuff. (Yumi had to restrain a laugh, and hastily turned it into a cough) It's tied in. Okay," he said, turning to the others, "let's go."
They separated, Odd, Jeremie and Yumi following the hallway to Sissy's locker, Odd rushing ahead. Ulrich ran around the corner, where there was a shortcut through the boy's locker room window that led to the outside world. From there, he climbed through a window in a supply/janitor closet. Checking to make sure no one was watching, he crept out, walked around the corner to see Sissy putting some of her books in her locker.
"Hey Sissy," said Ulrich, faking a smile for the prank's sake.
"Oh hi Ulrich," she replied, a real smile spreading across her face. "Where are your friends?"
"Oh that doesn't matter," he lied. "So, I was wondering," he took her hand and lead her around the bend, "can we talk in private?"
"Sure." Sissy's heart was bursting with excitement, and it was as if all of her dreams had come true.
Ulrich took her to a spacious closet that was larger and cozier than most. "I'm having some issues in some subjects, and maybe we can study together sometime… let's say Friday?"
"Of course Ulrich. It's like a study date?"
"Not like a study date… a study date."
Sissy couldn't believe it… she felt sweat going down her forehead. She leaned up towards him…
Ulrich felt sweat running down his forehead too. Sissy was trying to kiss him… but he couldn't. Not when he had just kissed Yumi that last night. He couldn't do it… but yet he had to. If Odd got caught putting frogs in Sissy's locker, then he would have to go home. Playing a prank on the principal's daughter that included stealing dead frogs from the lab, would be worse. He hesitated, and then closed his eyes, not wanting to see what might happen…
Meanwhile, Odd ran to Sissy's open locker, scribbling a note on a sticky-note and stuffing it into the bag where the dead frogs were. Cramming the bag into the small locker, he shut it and joined his friends around the curve.
Minutes later, Sissy walked back to her locker. Her face was unreadable. Ulrich, however, looked sick. When she noticed that her locker had been shut, she muttered, "That's weird, I swore I left it open. Oh well." She opened it, only to have the bag of dead frogs spill onto her. She screamed and freaked out, jumping up and down in disgust. This caused her to crush some of them, sending frog guts flying, causing her to scream louder.
When she finally calmed down, Ulrich, who had walked over to his companions, who had emerged to watch, called, "Oh yeah Sissy? That 'date' isn't going to happen!"
The Lyoko gang laughed at Sissy's reaction to Ulrich's thousandth rejection. "You!" she spat, pointing at them, "You probably planed this!" She rummaged through the bag to retrieve the note.
"Ha!" she cried, holding up the crumpled piece of paper, laughing almost maniacally, "This piece of paper will probably prove my point!" She unwrinkled it, and furiously read it. Her jaw dropped when she saw whose name was on it.
'To Sissy
-from Herb'
She stomped around the corner. Herb was waiting for her. He was straightening his corner, looking quite smug. "Hello Sissy dear," he greeted her.
"Explain this!" she exclaimed, throwing a dead frog in his face. It fell into his hands. Gaping at it, he started to sputter.
"But… but I didn't do this!"
"Oh yes you did you little twerp. You are off my gang!"
"No! I did do this! Listen to me!"
Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi laughed again. Yumi was the first to stop. She glanced at Ulrich. "You know Ulrich, since we're talking again, do you want to go back to Lyoko?"
To everyone's relief, Ulrich replied, "Yes. And this time, I won't joke around."
Aftershock Aftershock Aftershock Aftershock Aftershock Aftershock Aftershock
A/N: To make more people review, I'm hosting a contest. Whoever reviews first will get a descriptive description of what happened in that closet… Put your e-mail address in the review. If you don't have one… then too bad. I know that's mean.. but I can't really tell you in an author note without letting anyone else know. Have fun reviewing!- sorinslayer4eva