Chapter four: Ten minutes in the future.

PoV: Take a guess?

"Going to the library, gotta work on a project, k? Okay bye!" I didn't wait for an answer; why bother when you knew it would be a no? I rushed out the door and skidded to a stop in the middle of the street as I headed for the factory. 'Why today? Of all days, why today?' I sighed and rounded the corner to the bridge, trying to prepare myself for the fight to come.

I guess it was rather good timing; when I called Ulrich back that is. We had just said hello before Jerimie almost busted the door down trying to get it open, obviously in panic mode. As usual, XANA had some twisted plan of trapping us in school, but everyone (with the exception of Odd, who had found himself glued to the cafeteria's seats) had managed to get out safely. Everyone was already at the factory, Ulrich and Aelita on lyoko as I, err, "speak".

After pressing the elevator button a couple of times to many, its doors opened slowly. I walked into the contraption, waiting for the doors to close just as slowly as they had opened. "CLOSE, DAMNIT!" I was growing, very impatient, screaming loud enough for any person in a block of the factory to hear. I grinned as the doors began to close in, saying a polite thank you and tapping my foot to the imaginary elevator music playing.

x insert break and sudden random POV change here x

"Ulrich! Hold on a little longer, you've only got 10 life points," after I said this, I paused as an aggravated voice rang through the building, "And Yumi's on her way! Don't worry, she's in the elevator, I should fix that thing one of these days..."

x insert ANOTHER break and POV change to Yumi Ishiyama,. x

As the doors open I made my way into my scanner, knowing Jerimie knew exactly where I was. The doors closed behind me, indicating the beginning of my journey to lyoko. The last thing I heard was Jerimie's familiar voice saying "Virtualization!" before being pixilated into the world that was like a second, or third, home to me.

As I landed, I flicked my fan open and prepared to block any incoming shots. A yellow blur passed in front of me, almost knocking me over and blocking a laser in the process.

"Ya know, I can fend for myself, right?" I asked, with a slight grin on my face, knowing he was the one who needed the help right now. Throwing a fan with very little effort, I hit one of the last blocks as the yellow blur toyed around with the megatank to my left. The last of the enemy turned slowly to face me, powering up its laser as it moved. I smiled to myself, knowing I could take it down any day, as it fired, I effortlessly moved a step to the left. As the megatank exploded, I tossed my fan towards the monster and watched as it wobbled unsteadily on its "claws" (AN: what to call then…) before detonating before my eyes. The infamous yellow blur slowed down to a stop beside me and waited for the pink haired princess to appear.

"Aelita? Where are you!" The lyokian was nowhere to be seen. Jerimie hadn't warned us she was in the tower, and if anything had happened to his poor Aelita, I'm sure we would have heard him scream something of unrepeatable nature over the headset. Looking around frantically, I didn't notice the figure sneaking up behind me.

"Ae" I'll let you sue your imagination on how loud I screamed as I turned around to a face inches away from mine, who managed to mutter a loud "boo!" seconds before I could dig their name from my brain. As I slowly came back to reality, I heard Jerimie and Aelita laughing hysterically, and could see Ulrich smirking, leaning on a nearby tree. Glaring, I screamed rather loudly at them that it was in fact not funny, shaking my finger to add dramatic effect.

"Common, can't you take a joke?" Ulrich was shaking his finger mockingly at me, batting his eyelashes the best he could. I grabbed Aelita's hand and started dragging her towards the tower, ignoring the blank stare I was receiving Mr. Ithinkitisfuntoscareyumi.

"No, I can't take a joke, now if you'll excuse me, we have a tower to deactivate here," I motioned to the pillar in front of us, the glowing red mist drifting around it effortlessly. Aelita started sprinting ahead, being dissolved into the tower at contact. Moments later, we were back on earth, waiting for Jerimie to get into the elevator.

"Can we please go back in time?" Whining may not have been my best plan, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Sure, going back would increase the strength of XANA, ultimately endangering the entire world, but I needed a redo! "Just once Jerimie, do it for me," I must admit, I am much better at batting my eyelashes than Ulrich will ever be, but it seemed to have no effect on Jerimie.

"Yumi, you know we can't do that,"

"Although I could really use a retake of that science quiz…" Ulrich interrupted Jerimie, and I smiled.

"SEE! He wants to go back too, plllllease?" He just shook his head and got up from his chair, heading towards the elevator. Sighing, I joined reluctantly before the doors closed.

x insert break here x

As quietly as possible, I turned the door knob on the front door. After moving a quarter of the way, it stopped. "Shit!" I mumbled under my breath, not knowing where my new family kept the spare key. Biting my lip, I looked at my watch (let's pretend she has one, shall we?), it was approaching midnight. Our mission had taken much longer than I expected, with all the fooling around on Lyoko. Having to return to school to get Odd unglued from the lunch bench was no help either, taking more time than the mission in it's self.

Pacing back and fourth on the steps caused the flood light above the door to switch on. As unexpected as this was, it didn't bother me until I heard a bed creak and feet dragging heavily across a wooden floor. My eyes widened, as I panicked, beginning to hyperventilate on the door step. As the footsteps got louder I forced myself to remain calm. 'Common Yumi, there's no reason to panic, they'll understand. Yeah, right…' The door opened a bit to reveal a yawning Hailey standing with knees bent, putting most of her weight on the door itself. She seemed to smirk when she noticed it was me at the door, opening it wider and saying a mischievous "Come in, why don't you?"

I gulped and took a step forward, preparing myself to dash to my new room. A hand clasped my shoulder and foiled my plan, leaving me with one option; confrontation.

"Hehe, hey Hailey, what's, uh, new?" I smiled awkwardly and watched her foot tap on the wooden floor. Obviously refusing to answer, I sidestepped and watched her turn to watch me like a hawk. "You know, you look awfully tired, I think we should both get some sleep. Night!" Walking a bit faster than normal, I turned the corner before sprinting to my room. Skidding as I maneuvered through the door, I used my foot to close the door. I slowly made my way over to my bed, before collapsing and slowly falling into a deep sleep.

x insert break here x

Before I knew it I heard my alarm clock go off, I had set it a few minutes earlier than usual to give me extra time to figure out where I had put my cloths when I had unpacked them I night before. 'This is going to take some getting used to,' I couldn't have been more right. Once I finished getting dressed, I walked into the kitchen. Glancing at the clock on the wall, I chocked on my orange juice.

"Ten minutes till 7?" Putting my class down on the counter, I rocketed out the door. "I could have sworn I set my alarm early this morning! I'm such a nitwit!" Smacking my forehead while running towards school, I noticed the gang was yet to be at out trademark bench. 'Am I really that late?' Once again I glanced at my watch. "What? 6:52? This is really screwed up…"

As I looked around, I noticed only a few scattered students were in the courtyard. Sitting down on the bench, I waited as patiently as possible for the minutes to tick by. Sure enough, after 3 minutes passed, Ulrich and Odd emerged from the dorm buildings and strolled slowly towards our meeting spot.

"Whoa, you're here early," Odd was pointing out the obvious again. I glared at him, before smiling at Ulrich. He gave me a friendly wave and sat down next to me, looking over at me after getting comfy.

"So, why are you here anyway?" Jerimie and Aelita were heading our way, also waving before taking their seats. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"I woke up today and I was ten minutes into the future," I gained stares from the whole group, before the morning bell broke the awkward silence. I stood off, brushing my jeans off before making my way towards class. Why must the long days continue?

AN stuffs:

Okay, like I have said before, not very interested in writing right now. Yes, I know, it's a short chapter, a weird, short chapter. Out of ideas, sometimes out of time. I've become more interested in reading and drawing again, so it may be a –long- update. Sorry for how long this was, actually, I'm just lazy, (. Review if you'd like, I know I don't review a lot. I should probably start before people get angry with me, xP.

Um, yeah. IM me if you want, PM if you want, review if you want, email if you want…blahblahblah…

Loveliness,

Aimee.