I know, it's a stupid chapter name, but I had to think of something! (sometimes ya win, and sometimes ya dont) Sorry if the last chapter was so short...well, here's the next one!

Chapter 5: Feeling

The day blurred by, in Ulrich's eyes. In Yumi's eyes, the day went by far too slowly. The part that was the slowest to her was lunch. She walked into the cafeteria with a confident stride, then she stopped Ulrich. Her heart seemed to stop right then and there. 'Don't look nervous, don't look nervous,' she kept telling herself, but she feared that herself wasn't listening.

"Hey Yumi!" Ulrich greeted her with a broad grin from the lunch table. She gave a little wave back and started towards the lunch line. He and Odd had already gotten their food, and Jeremie hadn't arrived yet. 'Must still be working on that materialization stuff,' Yumi reassured herself. She sped through the lunch line, it seemed, then walked over to the table again. She started to sit down across from Ulrich like she always had, but today Ulrich patted the seat beside him in a gesture that said, "Sit by me."

She went around the table and sat next to Ulrich instead. Odd eyed them suspiciously, then went back to eating his food and rambling on like usual. "So, did you know that I'm helping Sam out at the dance with the music?" Odd stated, shoveling food into his mouth. "I'm going to be the DJ and she's going to give me the music to play. Any requests out there!" Odd yelled to his imaginary audience. Ulrich chuckled, and Yumi smiled, nibbling away at her sandwich.

"Hey, I've got a request," Yumi spoke up, suddenly, surprising herself and Ulrich as well.

"Really?" Odd and Ulrich said at the same time. Odd continued, "What is it?"

"Uhh...I don't...I mean.." Yumi stuttered. 'Why am I so nervous around Ulrich all of a sudden? Just say whatever you thought you were gonna say!' "What I was gonna say is...the song 'Bring Me To Life' " Yumi finally said, almost spat.

Odd took out his pen and wrote 'Bring Me To Life - need Evanescence CD' on his napkin. "Cool! I'll be sure and play it for you!" He then grinned and went to the line to get seconds.

There was an uncomfortable silence between them for what seemed like forever. Then Ulrich said, "So, you like Evanescence?"

"Yeah, they're one of my favorite bands," Yumi said. Even though they were in France, she didn't really know French, and besides she preferred the American style of music, like punk and rock. (A/N:I needed to think of something! hehe)

"Cool! They're a great band. What's your favorite song? Is it 'Bring Me To Life' or something else?"

"I don't really have a favorite song...rather a group of songs I like."

"Which are..."

" 'Bring Me To Life', 'Going Under', and 'My Immortal'. The others are cool, but I like those 3 the best."

"Yeah, those are good songs," Ulrich agreed. There was silence again before Odd came back with his tray overflowing with food and Jeremie ran in the cafeteria.

"Guys!" Odd and Jeremie exclaimed at the same time.

"They let me have three puddings!" Odd said, spooning the pudding into his mouth.

"I don't know where Aelita is!" was Jeremie's news.

"How can you not know where she is!" Ulrich replied.

"I don't know..I just...I was trying a new materialization program and I was online, and then..." He looked like he was going to burst into tears. "My computer somehow got a virus off of the internet and I was in the middle of testing the program when it happened and she just...disappeared!" He finally just broke down in tears. Yumi gasped, Odd stopped consuming the pudding, and the group of friends was silent in reverence, then questions emerged.

"Did you check the scanners?" "Did you look all over Lyoko?" "She must be here somewhere." "Remember when you got stuck between Earth and Lyoko?" "Do you think she's in that place between Earth and Lyoko?"

"There's only one way to find out," Jeremie said, determinedly. "I'm going. But we'll have to come up with the same glitch as last time, only not the 'almost deletion' glitch, but slightly different. I'd like to get stuck there, but not almost get deleted, like last time. We might have to rewire the programming to the CPU and possibly hook-up this program from my laptop via a local network connection - not to mention we will have to be online, though it could be risky..." All of the gangs' mouths gaped as he tried to explain what he wanted them to do.

"Hey, hey, hey! Einstein!" Odd said. "Back-up! You hook up the wires and stuff, and we'll send you to that place so we can work all of this out! And maybe," he said, a grin coming to his face, nudging Jeremie, "we could get her materialized for the dance tomorrow, if we're successful." Jeremie blushed, and Yumi stifled a giggle. Ulrich had a thoughtful look on his face, and didn't respond to this.

"All right, all right," Jeremie agreed. "Let's go." They exited the cafeteria. Unfortunately, they hadn't heard Sissi's satisfied cackle as she strutted down the hall to tell Jim all that she'd heard with Herb and Nicholas not far behind.