Ask Me What It's Like to Never Win
By: Leelei
Disclaimer: I don't own Code:Lyoko. This story was written before airing of Season 2 began.
Author's Note: Damn, I knew this was going to be long, but shit! I can't remember typing this much… Ah well, I promised an update so here it is. What a bitch!
Chapter 8
I wait around the corner of Jeremie and Aelita's hallway until finally Ulrich and Yumi arrive to leave for the party with them. Yumi is amazing; she's sixteen now and her looks have really matured. I can see she's wearing Ulrich's warm-up jersey, white with the blue lettering of the school on the front and with his last name and team number on the back. She wears a lot of his soccer jerseys and hooded sweatshirts with his surname on them, only laminating the fact that she's officially his girl now.
Aelita looks so much better, though. In that soft, light blue halter top and those tight, dark denim capri pants (blue is the team color, so I'm sure everyone at the party will be wearing it), she looks like a model right out of the pages of a magazine. But she would look even better if she just let go of Jeremie's damn arm.
The laughing, happy group leaves and I finally can sneak around to the door. I go to Jeremie's first, not wanting to take anything from my dear Aelita's room. Once I've fumbled past the doorknob, I put my lock pick away and quickly enter, shutting it behind me as soon as I'm inside.
Wow. So this is it. How boring.
What's so great about this room? A bed, a closet, a dresser, and two desks; one for writing, and the other in front of the window with a large computer console on it. I can tell that it's still on and there's a blank screen saver on it, but I bypass it and walk over to the other desk instead.
On it there are a few pictures in simple frames next to the small lamp and a couple of textbooks. The first picture seems like it's from a photo booth or something, and is of him and Aelita, big surprise. The second is of Aelita and Yumi with their arms over each other's shoulders, both grinning. I can easily see why he keeps it out; they're both really pretty. The last one is of him, Aelita, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi all huddled together and smiling. It was obviously taken during our graduating class field trip after Junior High when we all went camping. Or, at least it probably was. I didn't go.
I've finally found that damn model between the wall and in front of his bed. It looks heavy, and I don't know if I can carry this thing out without the other kids down the hall seeing me. I can attempt to lie if anyone asks and say that Jeremie wanted me to come get it for him, but everyone knows in this school what happened between him and me…that I freaked out at the mention of his name during class. No, lying won't work, but what the hell am I going to do now?
Going back over to his computer, I shake the mouse and flop down on his chair. I wish my parents would buy me my own computer for my room, or at least just a laptop. This kid has both…No, I am not jealous of him. He's just lucky, that's all. And besides, he's going to be losing Aelita soon anyway.
Well, now this is interesting. All of his files and programs at my fingertips…so let's just see what he's got. I click through his subfolders and finally find something that has a lot of typed documents in it. So I click on one, and it immediately pops open into a Word program.
But what's this?
'Dear Ms. Morzales,
Please allow Aelita della Robbia to work with Jeremie Belpois for this year's Science Olympiad. I have had them both in class before, and they are an exceptional pair when working together. I advise you to place them in the same group to assure yourself a spot in this year's competition. I have heard that the awards are excellent for this contest, and I would like to see you the best prepared for a chance to win them.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Suzanne Hertz
Science Dept. Chairwoman, Kadic Jr. High School'So this was how he did it! But I don't get it. Why would he have a copy of this? It doesn't look like he has a scanner around here. Then I notice the school district's letterhead was on the top of the page. And it wasn't a scanned one, but a digitally produced and imported image. This letter wasn't copied…it was created.
Or forged. I smack my forehead and curse myself for not thinking of that. I know he's a hacker, so of course he can whip up a letter and weasel his way in through the system; he's probably been doing it for years.
Curious to see just how many other times he's used this method, I open another document. A note to switch lunch periods so he could be with Aelita and his friends this year, how clever. I open another to see that he had fixed one of our classes to be with her again. Then another from her parents consenting her to dorm on the boys' floor with him, another from the principal excusing her from class to help Jeremie with a school project, and more random excuses dating all the way back to Junior High, just after she had arrived as a new student.
Then I come across the very last file. I quickly open it, eager to see what's inside, and I nearly faint at the image. It's…it's…
…It's her transcripts. These look scanned, since they were originally in handwriting, and I realize after looking carefully that they're in that Odd kid's style. He did pretty good, but anyone who has graded his papers in class as long as I have can notice it from anywhere.
But what the hell? Did Aelita forge her way into boarding school? Maybe her parents couldn't afford the tuition and sending her to live in France. Maybe she asked Jeremie to do it for and that's how they've become so close. Whatever he's got going for her, no one will ever be able to trace any of it. These documents are completely encrypted. But nothing a genius like myself can't crack…
I find a floppy disk lying around and insert it into the hard drive. After deleting the documents already on it, I quickly get to de-hacking the files and compressing them. It takes a good amount of time, but I finally get them done and all onto the disk. The last one is taking a while to compress, since it was the scanned document, so my attention wanders. I return back to the other desk and start going through the drawers.
After opening the first one, however, I stop. On top of the books and papers within it is a large picture frame, just the right size to fit into the little area. I pull it out and realize that it's only half-way put together, and that the portrait is Aelita's school picture. I want to take it, yet I don't want to be too suspicious, but as I move to put it back a small strip of paper falls from it. I set the frame on the desk and pick up the paper and I'm startled to see what it is.
It's actually another small picture, cut out from one developed out of a simple 35 mm camera. But it's really weird…it's of that old factory back near Kadic Jr. High. I quickly flip the rest of the frame over and separate it to find a collage that Jeremie was really working on.
In the middle of the mat of the frame was a small paper with the rest of the poem he had wrote for Aelita, it was easy to see. But I couldn't tell if the first letters really spelt anything at all anymore:
'Loving you from the very first sight, my beautiful rose,
You never looked back for a second, trusting me with all your heart.
Our mission we did not lose,
Knowing you would not let us fall apart.
Of every path we have taken, I am fulfilled now to know that you truly love me, too.'
That doesn't even make sense…what mission? What path? And what does that factory have anything to do with this? The other clippings in the frame, I realize, are little sketches; a fan, a sword, and an arrow. Seriously though, what the hell does all of this mean?
I shake my head. "Whatever…" I can't help myself from saying out loud. I put everything back in the drawer and return to the computer. The file has compressed, but to move it I need an access code.
"A code?" I voice out loud again. Then I try everything from Aelita's name, any combination of those letters, to anyone or anything that Jeremie might have a connection to. And now I'm stuck. So what's this secret code…
After a few more minutes I just shrug. Going back over to the drawer, I notice the first letters of each line in the poem and type them in order. "Lyoko?" I ask myself skeptically, but I end up hitting the enter key anyway. But much to my surprise…that wasn't any ordinary code.
"Welcome," a voice from the computer says. "No network connection found."
"No network? But this is hooked up to a T3 connection speed, how isn't it finding anything?"
I continue searching through this new program that has opened, but it's really kind of weird. It actually almost looks more like a game. I skim through the long documents and Aelita's name is mentioned several times. After a while of reading, though, I get a feeling of what really might be going on.
"PROGRAM- AELITA… No longer available on the network.
"PROGRAM- X.A.N.A…. No longer available on the network. Deleted 15/09/06. Files no longer available."
I click on Aelita's name but the voice returns. "No longer available on the network. Please replace files and try again."
Replace files? What?
"No longer available on the network. Please replace files and try again."
I try another route.
"Files missing from the database. Please restore with connections to the network and try again."
"But you told me that the network can't be connected!" I rage out loud to the computer. Whatever game this is that he programmed featuring his girlfriend, it should really make Jeremie cross off ever becoming a video game creator from his to do list in life. But just as I'm about to get my last document and leave, another click opens the best file of all.
"Retrieving temporary saved memory of X.A.N.A. program…Please wait." So I wait. I'm about to go again, but the information that pops up next makes my eyes bulge so wide I can barely look at the screen.
"X.A.N.A.," I read out loud to myself, "is an unsupported file from the Lyoko network that has gained access to nearly all functions within the virtual world. It is nearly impossible to destroy in itself, yet the only other inhabitant within Lyoko, Aelita, has agreed to help us try to stop it and its monsters before it reaches Earth through the electricity circuits again. I have not found the exact portal that X.A.N.A. uses to enter our universe, yet it still manages to control our electric current. Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi have all agreed to this project. They have been virtualized and fought without problems while Aelita stopped X.A.N.A. through the towers within Lyoko, and I found them with me after the return trip to the past, safe and sound. They have picked up on my personal want to materialize Aelita over the obvious need to, so they are still very willing to help us by any means to create a world without danger."
This…this is Jeremie's computer log for the game. But…is this really a game? Slowly my mind processes everything I have found.
All of Aelita's documents have been forged…She already seemed to know Jeremie, Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich all very well when she arrived at Kadic Jr. High… I've never once seen or heard of her parents… and those weird pictures I just found…that weird poem…
The poem!
I jump back over to the desk and pull the paper out again, not bothering with the rest of the frame and pictures I have knocked onto the floor. "Loving you from the very first sight, my beautiful rose, You never looked back for a second, trusting me with all your heart. Our mission we did not lose, Knowing you would not let us fall apart. Of every path we have taken, I am fulfilled now to know that you truly love me, too," I read out loud again.
But what was the first part again? Digging through -and making a mess out of- Jeremie's textbooks on the other side of the desk, I find the paper of his poem the teacher returned to him the day of my breakdown and read it again. "A beautiful rose once grew in the garden of Heaven. Everyone knew it was the most special of all. Lovely and pure, it was cherished above all the others given, but In time it took a terrible fall. Today it has healed and now grows in all Earthly meadows, A reminder to us of true beauty, casting its radiance even in our shadows."
Then it hits me. Aelita is the rose that has taken the fall. She came from this place…this Lyoko, or whatever it is, and had to start a new life here. That's why everything has been created for her! That's why she knows those other four so well! And that was why she loves Jeremie. He brought her to this world. He…he probably saved her life…
But that doesn't matter now. This is perfect…this will change everything! I quickly save all the files I have just read on the computer to the same disk and close out the program. One look over of this by the principal and Jeremie can kiss his enrollment here good-bye. Maybe the police would like a chance to see it, too. Not reporting a world-threatening virus could get him in a great deal of trouble. Or fixing it to look like he made this X.A.N.A. thing could get him taken away from Aelita for sure! They would, after all, have no doubt by then that he's a genius at creation.
I almost can feel tears forming in my eyes. This is perfect…this is so damn perfect…
I'm about to put the computer back into sleep mode to prevent suspicion when I hear a familiar voice from outside the window. It's open, so I peek my head out to find out who's talking below.
My heart skips a beat when I see from the second story room that it's Jeremie opening the door for Aelita to enter the dorm building, him following in behind her. I can just catch a second of what he's saying to her.
"…I'm so sorry I forgot, Aelita, but you know how cold it gets when I don't shut that window in my room…"
Shit. Oh, shit! They're coming here! And, of course, I'm sticking my head out of the said window right now. Quickly I pull myself back into the room and yank the floppy disk from the computer drive. Not even bothering to clean up what I've wrecked in the room, I start running and make it out past the hallway corner just in time to sneak a look back to see Jeremie's and Aelita's startled expressions when they discover the door left wide open. I can also hear Jeremie's loud cursing when he realizes what has just happened inside of his room.
I catch my breath and bury the disk in my pocket before I turn the corner again and walk nonchalantly down the hall, hearing a small piece of their conversation as I go.
"Jeremie," Aelita sounds worried. "What did they take?"
"I'm not exactly sure," I can hear Jeremie reply. "But I think someone else besides all of us involved might know of Lyoko now…"
What a stretch…hope it was an easy read for you, more coming soon! Please review! ; )