Okay, I got home today, and thought, 'Yay, it's Thursday. That means, at five, Cod Lyoko is on.' So I turn the TV on. Five o'clock? Bloody Medabots! Hellooo? There were only four episodes left until the end of the series! IS IT TOO MUCH OF AN EFFORT TO SHOW FOUR MORE EPISODES!

Then I went on the web and had reviews from all you wonderful people, so that cheered me up. But S4C, if you're listening, please just show those four episodes! You can cancel Clwb Wincs, which you've already shown all the way through and is a terrible cartoon anyway. Pleeeeeease? I'm begging you!

Wombat ?: Because of the great Cyber Wombat! Don't you remember? (Don't worry, anyone else reading this: it's an ongoing joke between me and Ned).

tehrandomkitten: 'Spiked marshmallows'? You're giving me ideas! ;-D

Amaherst: Soz; but I was getting tired of writing Jérémie and thought the scene would work better if it was just sudden. What happened is: James was annoying Yumi really badly, so Ulrich hit him on the back of his head with his football. Capish?

HvonM: Oooh, thank you.

thegreengurl: Thank you very much!

Otritzi: Random Sissi chapters? Hmm… now there's an idea… Nah, no Odd and Aelita in this story, I'm afraid. Our pink-haired pal makes her debut in the next story, and Odd a little later. But he will come in! I'm looking forward to writing him too much to leave him out!

Angels 'n Dreams: Updating now!

Mystic Dragon: Guilty smile. If I could make the chapters any longer I swear I would. I've written them as long as I could. Yeah, I really hate it when people switch POVs every paragraph, because I end up thinking 'What? Who's this now?' I hope the feeling you get is more Noughts and Crosses (which gave me the switching views idea) than random changing. No, no XANA either (gods, Fudge, you're terrible). BUT HE WILL COME IN! BEAR WITH ME, PEOPLE! (PS. What does AU stand for? Cos I can't figure it out…)

parslie: You wouldn't like it so much if you had to hear it everyday, BELIEVE me. Be glad I didn't give him a female sidekick… her laugh would be worse than nails on a chalkboard…

Lyoko Lover: You get Code Lyoko in Italy? That is really cool! Is it in Italian or English? I only get Welsh, and S4C has cancelled Cod Lyoko AGAIN and replaced it with Medabots… oooh, I'm gonna kill 'em…

Kay: Well, I thought, if anyone's gonna get hit by a football, might as well be someone who deserved it, right?

UlrichwithYumialways: It's payback for all the times I've almost been hit with a football! Stupid Trystan… grrr…

Yumi I.

I think I may have misjudged Ulrich. How many guys out there would do that? The only reason he hasn't been given detention is that he's new. If I'd tried a stunt like that I'd probably have been suspended.

However, he isn't, so I'm heading to his and Jérémie's room. Jérémie's in Computer Club, so that'll keep him occupied for at least the next hour. My parents don't mind me being at school after the day's finished; I guess they're just glad I now have people I'm willing to call friends. I don't think they're too keen about the fact that they're both male, but some is better then none, no?

I take a deep breath outside the door and knock. There's no answer. I place my ear to it.

'I drove for miles and miles and wound up at your door…' someone's singing. It isn't belting-out-at-the-top-of-your-lungs singing; it's quiet, soft singing, like when you're listening to your mp3 player or something.

I enter stealthily. Ulrich's sitting on his bed with his back to the door. He's reading and listening to his CD player.

I slip behind him and remove the earphones. 'Wouldn't have thought you'd be a Maroon 5 fan,' I say.

He looks at me and smiles. It's a warm, sincere smile that makes me feel a hundred percent better. 'My cousin gave me the CD for my birthday. I was surprised, actually: "Maroon 5" sounds like a type of paint.'

I laugh, even though the joke isn't actually that funny. It isn't a forced laugh, either. Ulrich grins at me and swings his legs off the bed. I sit down.

'Listen, I…' I begin, but find it hard to look at him while talking, so I turn to stare at my hands. 'I wanted to… thank you. For yesterday.'

'Why?' he says. 'What did I do yesterday?'

This time I do look at him. He looks perfectly innocent, except for the fact that his eyes are shining mischievously.

'You know very well,' I say, and grin. 'James has had to go to hospital, y'know. So… thanks. Not many people would've done that; James has a lot of thuggish friends.'

Ulrich shrugs. 'I don't care if he was head of the Kadic Mafia,' he says. 'He was annoying you, so I stopped him.'

'It's the first time he's ever done that,' I say. 'Usually he just talks.'

Ulrich puts a hand on my shoulder. It feels completely natural. 'He won't ever do it again,' he says fiercely.

And I – the world's biggest cynic – believe him completely.

He seems to notice his hand on my shoulder and withdraws it. Shame. It felt… nice.

Eeek! Yumi Ishiyama, what is going on here?

I don't know. What is going on here?

I reach into my bag and pull out a silver A4 spiral bound book. 'Umm…' I say hesitantly, 'you said you wanted to see my art…'

Ulrich puts his book down and leans closer to me. My heartbeat quickens (will someone please tell me what's going on!).

With shaking hands I open my art book. The first page is a picture of a teenage Manga girl who, yes, does look like me. She's dressed in a loose black top and skirt with old-fashioned lady's riding boots and a long black cloak. Poking over her bottom lip is a pair of very sharp incisors. She has an expression that clearly says 'gonna mess with me?'

Ulrich looks from me to the picture. 'Jérémie was right,' he says. 'You are a really good artist.'

I smile softly and say something in thanks. Not quite sure what; I'm having trouble concentrating.

For the next half hour or so we sit together, flicking through my art book. Ulrich likes my Poké-pics best, followed by my Manga 'comic'. In truth it's just a few random scenes and character designs, but Ulrich thinks they're really good and is trying to persuade me to make an actual comic.

I shake my head. 'I don't think I have the patience. The average Manga comic is about a hundred and fifty pages long.'

'Well,' he says, 'you can make a non-average comic.'

I wonder if smiling too much has some kind of affect on your health.

'I still don't have the patience.'

'Shame. I'd like to know more about the adventures of Adora Stoker the vampire and Steffan Willows the psychic.'

'And Phillip Cooper,' I add.

Ulrich raises an eyebrow. Blushing slightly, I flick to the second-to-last picture. It shows a handsome youth wearing jeans and a soccer shirt, standing with an eyebrow cocked and his hair askew. Under one arm is a soccer ball.

Ulrich smiles. I think he's taken the drawing as a compliment. I hope he has. I spent ages last night trying to get the hair right.

'So what's Phillip's power?' he asks. He looks pretty pleased with himself, and his eyes are shining cheerfully.

'Hmm? Oh, I don't know. I think he's a werewolf, or something. Maybe he can talk to animals. Haven't really given it much thought.'

'You just thought you'd include him?'

'Yup. Three main characters are better than two, because with two everyone thinks there's some kind of love interest between them. If there are three, two of them can be all romantic while the other makes jokes.'

Maybe it's my imagination, but were Ulrich and I sitting so close to each other before?

He reaches out and gently turns the page. I blush and this time I REALLY can't look at him. Embarrassment is a terrible thing.

In the picture, Adora's snuck up behind Phillip and flung her arms around his neck. It's a close up of their faces: Adora's open adoration and Phillip's pleased affection for the girl he's gazing at. Rose petals float in the background.

I cough. 'It's, umm, not finished yet. I need to do the shading and stuff.'

Why did I draw it? Not a clue. I just though it was… sweet. I'd always felt that there had to be some sort of romantic element in the story, but Adora and Steffan didn't really feel right. Adora and Phillip… does.

I flip to the next page and reveal blank white. I'm glad I didn't draw the next scene between Adora and Phillip. That would make me turn even REDDER.

'I said it once, and I'll say it again: you, Yumi, are the best Manga artist I have ever seen,' Ulrich says. 'Even better than Hayao Myazaki.'

He's sweet.

'Thanks.'

I put my art book away and for the rest of the afternoon we talk. Not about anything important; I tell him which teachers to avoid and he tells me about his experiences at Kadic so far. I tell him about the expression on James's face as the ball smacked into him and he laughs so loudly Jim sticks his head around the door.

'What's going on here?' he asks.

'Nothing, Jim,' I say innocently. 'Just two friends having a laugh.'

Jim raises an eyebrow and looks at Ulrich for confirmation. 'Friends?'

Ulrich manages to stop laughing and puts an arm around my neck. 'Yeah,' he says. 'Friends.'

Jim still looks suspicious, but leaves anyway. Once his heavy footsteps have retreated to the end of the corridor, Ulrich and I look at each other and burst out laughing again.

'The way he looked at us…' I splutter.

'It's as if he expected me to say you were bullying me or something!'

'Come now, Ulrich, be fair. Jim hasn't ever had any friends.'

We laugh even harder, leaning against each other for support. I don't think I've ever had so much fun in my life.

It's a bit weird, to tell the truth: that one person can make me so amazingly happy. Why would anyone need drugs when there's this? In truth, I'm a stranger to such joy, but Ulrich makes the whole thing seem natural, as if it's a place I've been trying to get to and hadn't realised it until he threw open the gates and let me in. Oh dear. I've gone poetic.

The giggles subside but we don't let go of each other. My head's resting on his shoulder, one hand on the back of his neck, the other on his arm. Ulrich's got both arms round my waist and is breathing softly into my neck. He doesn't seem about to let go; then again, neither do I.

I'm not sure for how long we sit like that; could be a few minutes, could be several days. I pull my head back and look at him; he has the most amazing eyes. He looks at me too, his eyes soft and… what? Not a clue. But there's something else there.

I've never been this close to a guy. Well, no, scrap that. I have been this close to a guy, but not to a guy I actually like. When James pushed me against the wall all I felt was numb terror; now it's as if the rest of the world is fading away, and all that's important is me and Ulrich.

Maybe it's me who leans forward; maybe it's him. All I know is, my eyes are closing and we're drawing closer.

The door opens. 'Hey guys,' Jérémie says.

The effect is immediate: one minute Ulrich and I are holding each other tight, the next we've sprung apart and are sitting at opposite ends of the bed. 'Oh,' Ulrich says, in a voice feigning airiness. 'Hi, Jérémie.'

I'm not sure whether to kill Jérémie or thank him. I mean, what exactly happened there? One moment Ulrich and I were in fits of laughter, and the next… that happened. Or nearly did. And I want it to happen. Which is just weird! He's hardly my Dream Guy – he's not Johnny Depp, for one thing – and he's younger than me but that really doesn't seem to matter. He'll stick up for me and is nice and smells so good…

AAAARGH! YUMI, STOP THINKING RIGHT THIS MINUTE!

Jérémie hears my sort of strangled groan and turns around. I hope I haven't turned too red. Ulrich's the exact same shade as my Gran's upholstery; that is to say, pure CRIMSON.

'Something wrong?' Jérémie asks.

'No,' I answer, in a voice that makes me sound like I've been breathing helium. 'I'm fine.' Nearly kissed your best friend, but I'm fine… 'I just, umm… gotta go for a walk…'

I pick up my bag and head out of the room, trying oh so hard not to look at Ulrich.