Chapter 2 - What Home to Return To?
Aelita woke up at 6:45 AM, like usual.
She wore her usual outfit; pink hoodie sweater with the hoodie strings that had puffy white balls of cloth at the end of them, with a dark pink pair of overalls that, instead of pant legs, had a skirt that was cut just above the knee, all with burgundy, knee-high winter boots.
It may have been June, but Aelita still wore this. It was to give the effect she was from Canada. That's the lie she and her friends told the principal to enroll her in the school.
She also had the rest of her usual morning routine, taking a shower and brushing her teeth and such before getting dressed and eating breakfast with her friends later in the cafeteria.
All these things were on her normal to-do list. But the students seemed different. They talked fast, loud, and happily. They wore their best outfits. They were goofy and hyper. It was a little more out-of-control than usual, but the lunchroom supervisors seemed to overlook it.
Aelita felt strange eating pancakes and strawberry jam covered toast as Odd, Yumi, Jeremie, and Ulrich were sitting around her and blabbing and smiling just as excitedly as the rest of the eighth grade.
"I'm planning to go to Jamaica in July!" exclaimed Ulrich.
"We're going to have Japanese style fireworks parties all summer long!" Yumi yelled. "It'll be so much fun!"
"I'm gonna train Kiwi to do cool stuff and join a comedy club!" Odd's muffled voice said through a mouthful of pancakes.
"You Jeremie?" Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd asked in unison.
"I'm going to study the virtual and biographical components of XANA's virtual creations, research the habits of big cats, and find out the mass of obscure biotic and abiotic factors!" Jeremie proudly said.
Silence. The three stared at him. Odd was frozen, a pancake dripping with syrup on his fork held up to his open mouth. The silence was long.
Finally Odd cracked up laughing. It didn't take long for Yumi and Ulrich to join in too. Aelita just looked at them, confused.
"Jeremie, that's so sad! I feel for ya, buddy!" Odd screamed with laughter. Tears rolled form his eyes, he was laughing so hard.
"What!" Jeremie asked. "You guys are doing fun stuff too!"
They couldn't take it anymore. They laughed so hard the whole eighth grade turned in their seats and stared. Odd started choking on his pancakes. Their laughter became infectious after what seemed like the whole breakfast hour, so everyone gave at least a little giggle. Even Aelita started cracking up.
Jeremie felt embarrassed. He was the only one not laughing. "OK, so my interests aren't exactly in favor of a normal kid's summer!"
"You can say that again! I wasn't even sure what you'd said!" Odd yelled.
"Me too!" Ulrich said. "Me three!" said Yumi.
And they all howled with laughter again.
After lunch hour, they gathered on campus for their fifteen-minute break. Girls did somersaults, flips, and cartwheels. They gathered in groups and adored each other's outfits. Boys showed off skateboarding moves, skidding on the rails and racing on the walkways near the building. They had boom boxes playing at top notch and people were dancing. Most of this wasn't allowed, but Jim only said, "Slow down a bit, boys, on those skateboards! And turn the radios down some. Don't go completely crazy, now."
"Why is Jim not stopping them? This seems strange," Aelita said.
Odd and Ulrich were by a kid with a boom box having a dance competition. "Go Odd! Go Odd!" the kids around them were chanting while Odd break-danced. Then they changed to "Go Ulrich! Go Ulrich!" as he did a good Robot.
"Even Odd and Ulrich are joining them!" said Aelita.
Jeremie and Yumi stood next to her. Aelita just noticed Yumi was wearing her favorite dress. It was black, of course, with no sleeves and a knee-length skirt. There was a big black belt around her waist and she wore knee-high black boots. She had gloves with edges reaching just below her shoulders. The top halves of the fingers on the gloves were gone.
"It's a special day, Aelita!" Yumi exclaimed. "It's the last day of the school year! It's a special day because after this, we get a three month long summer break!"
"Oh! No wonder everyone's celebrating! It sounds great. I should have worn a dress!" Aelita said.
"You still have time to change! Break just started," Yumi told her. "And don't forget; tonight there'll be a summer dance at 6:00! It's three hours long!"
"Thanks Yumi!" Aelita said cheerfully. She skipped to her dorm, smiling the whole way. She opened the door of her armoire and pulled out her only and favorite dress. It was pale pink, of course. It had a flowing skirt reaching her ankles. A lavender ribbon was around the waist and the sleeves had bell cuffs. She put a lavender butterfly barrette in her hair. She wore her purple ankle boots too.
Then she walked back out on campus. She was walking back to Yumi and Jeremie to show them the dress when Sissy stopped her by the biology building.
"Well, well Einstein. Looks like you've outdone yourself on the second grader costume!" she snickered. Aelita frowned and looked at Sissy's own outfit. She wore a dark purple miniskirt, a yellow lace-lined tank top, and purple midriff-cut blazer. She'd even made her hair wavy and wore yellow heels and gold and purple make-up!
"I could say the same to you," Aelita simply said, slightly confused at Sissy's remark. She didn't think much like an Earth girl, since she was really virtual. She stomped away and back to her friends.
Odd and Ulrich were with Jeremie and Yumi, sprawled out on the ground, panting. Aelita stood near them and smiled down at their red faces. "Have fun?" she asked.
"Aelita, 'at you?" Odd exhaled.
"Man, you really do look like a princess!" Ulrich commented. They gave lifeless, brief laughs then sighed and went back to silently laying there like logs. "Who won?" Aelita questioned.
"Odd said he did, but then Ulrich argued that he did. So we don't know," Jeremie explained.
"Oh well!" Aelita shrugged. "Hey, by the way, Aelita, nice dress!" Yumi smiled. "Thank you," Aelita said.
"I think it's nice too!" Jeremie agreed. "Thanks a lot, Jeremie!" Aelita told him. She grinned. Who cared what Sissy said about her outfit? For all Aelita knew, Sissy was probably jealous.
"Hey, Yumi, are we doing anything other than the dance?" Aelita asked.
"Yeah," Yumi replied, smoothing out the skirt of her dress. "When the break's over..."
Little had she said about it when the first bell rang. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Well, why don't you follow us? It can be a surprise!" she started walking, Jeremie not far behind. Aelita went after them and Odd and Ulrich quickly staggered up and at 'em.
Aelita ran her fingers through her hair looking ahead of Yumi to see where they were headed. They traveled in a stream of howling, normal-turned-savage students. Everyone shuffled into the gymnasium/stage's side doors, the one nearest the part of campus meant for breakfast break. Sneakers gave out obnoxious screeches and scrapes from skateboards were heard. Binder, book bag, and backpack zippers made their weird little sounds, though talking drowned most out.
The gym was decorated with red, yellow, blue, green, orange, and brown streamers and paper murals of palm trees, beach-related things, and fruits and pretty much anything that had to do with summer. A yellow and red banner on the stage read, 'Happy Summer Kadic Jr. High!'
Principal Delmas stood erect and still by a microphone on the stage. His secretary, Jim, and other staff members sat in a series of chairs behind him. "Everyone take a seat," the Principal spoke into the microphone.
The bleachers were pulled out and Aelita took a seat with her friends in a row at the top. When everyone was seated Principal Delmas yelled into the microphone, "Who are we!"
"Kadic Jr. High!" everyone screamed. Usually they didn't say it too enthusiastically, but today they yelled it so loud Aelita thought her ears were going to pop.
"Sports teams! Who are we?" yelled Principal Delmas.
"The Kadic Cougars!" everyone simultaneously and deafeningly screeched, though he was only referring to the jocks and jockettes.
"Nice to see you all! As you know, it's the last day of the school year," said Principal Delmas.
Everyone cheered. "Yes, well, let's give congratulations to; the seventh grade, eighth grade, and ninth grade. Bravo!"
Everyone whooped and cheered and clapped. "Now," the principal continued. "We will now announce the grade that has shown the greatest level of good behavior, performance, and representation of our school. Then we will hand certificates to each individual student. The winning grade is... the eighth grade!"
The whole eighth grade hollered and cheered and screamed and jumped and celebrated. Odd and Ulrich did a silly little dance, Yumi cheered, and Jeremie yelled, "Congratulations to us!" He turned to Aelita. "You too, Princess!" They smiled at each other.
"First up," called Principal Delmas, "is..." and he called everyone up by alphabetical order.
First of Aelita's friends was Jeremie. "Jeremie Belpois!" He walked up, shook the principal's hand while beaming, took the certificate, and stood next to the person called before him. They were all being gathered in three lines of people in front of the stage.
Then the second of her friends: "Odd Della Robbia!" He walked up there and did what Jeremie did. Only difference was, he made peace signs with his hands and held them high above his head, the whole time, like a campaigner at a speech. "Oh yeah!" he yelled. The students loved it. They cheered and laughed.
"Yes, we all know how entertaining this lad is!" the principal said, and Odd stood next to the last person.
Right after Odd Principal Delmas called, "Elisabeth 'Sissy' Delmas!"
Sissy ran up to him, swiped the certificate from his hands, and hugged him. She then took the microphone and said, "Thank you Daddy! Thanks to everyone, especially my Ulrich!" She looked at Ulrich's face, which automatically grew pale. Sissy gave a stupid little wave. "Hi, sweetie pie!"
"OK, Sissy, you've said enough," the principal gruffly spoke. Everyone laughed as he pulled her from the microphone and pushed her to her spot next to Odd. She frowned and snapped to the giggling Odd, "What are YOU laughing at?"
Then came Yumi Ishiyama. Then Ulrich Stern. Finally, he called "Aelita Stones!"
She stepped up and took her certificate. It read:
To
Aelita Stones
You and peers of your grade level have shown a
significant example of model student behavior. Good
work!
Signed: Principal Pierre Delmas
"Enjoy your summer vacation!" he told her as she shook his hand. "Going to have some fun with cousin Odd?"
Aelita felt her heart jolt. "Uh... of course!" She walked down to the line. She stood and thought. Odd wasn't her cousin. She had no cousins. No family. No home. Her friends were great company and they helped her and all. But she wished she had that much more. Technically, Lyoko was her home and she had always called it that. But how could it really be that with monsters of XANA's wanting to destroy her instead of loving parents, siblings, and relatives?
It wasn't long until the principal said, "Nice job, Kadic Jr. High's eighth grade! You may all go back to your seats!" Aelita stood standing as students flooded past her and back to the bleachers like a rock in the way of ants headed homeward. Yumi, Ulrich, Jeremie, and Odd were the only ones that stopped beside her. "Coming?" they asked expectantly.
"Yeah," Aelita replied. They all took their seats again. Odd leaned back in his seat and sighed. "It'll be nice to go home, eh, my buddies?"
"Oh yeah, yeah," they all agreed. Aelita remained silent.
"Aelita?" Yumi looked at her.
"GOOD FOR YOU, BUT WHAT HOME DO I HAVE TO RETURN TO!" she screamed. The others were shocked. The clamor of the students stopped. Everyone stared in surprise. In that brief second the students noticed her, Aelita started to feel grief smothering her. Before she had thought of it and didn't think so much of it. But when she said it out loud the words sounded like each individual clang of a stabbing knife. Each individual attack XANA had ever launched on her friends and others. Each individual moment of sadness she or her friends had ever had.
For the first time in her life, she felt hot tears in her eyes. She clapped her hands over her face in surprise and sprinted down the bleachers and out the gym doors.
"Aelita! Wait!" Jeremie yelled. He ran after her, Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd joining pursuit. Not far behind them were Jim and Principal Delmas.