Hey, I'm getting better. It's only been five days since my last update! Before that, it was like a month. This chapter is dedicated to Fox Kitsune, because she gave me a whoppin 195 word review! I'm not so sure I should be encouraging her, she's probably going to go off and scare other authors... but I think she deserves it. Anyways, I'm going to get on with the chapter, because I usually spend WAY too much time talking. And now off we go!

(Ulrich P.O.V.)

"What is it Ulrich?" Avery asks.

"Herb is dead. We uh, found him in his room, and he was dead." I say, emphasizing the in his room part. I don't want Sissi to find out about Lyoko. Immediately, Yumi's face softens. We sit Sissi down on the bench, in between Jeremie and Aelita. Sissi is still crying her eyes out, but she's crying silently now. I kneel down in front of her, Odd and Yumi stand behind me. Avery is sitting next to Aelita, and is watching intently.

"Sissi… are you going to be okay?" I ask her gently. She looks up at me, her makeup running down her cheeks with her tears.

"I-I-I just lost one of my best f-friends…." She states and buries her head in her hands again.

"It will be okay Sissi. Trust me, it will all work out. Don't ask how, but Herb died a heroic death."

"What? How?" I just shake my head.

"Please don't ask how. I'm asking you, as a friend, to not ask. If your father asks, just tell him you found him in his room, dead. Please Sissi, as a friend." Sissi stares at me.

"A f-friend? Really?" I look to the others, who give nods of encouragement.

"Yes Sissi, as a friend." She smiles at me, a warm smile.

"Thank you Ulrich." She hugs me and I hug her back. I quickly look up at Yumi. Yumi looks kind of perturbed, but she's not saying anything. Odd offers to escort Sissi back to her room and she accepts. I notice Avery looks a little disturbed at this too. Wow, jealousy is flying around like a bug today. Especially among the female population of the group.

"Come on guys, let's go somewhere else. I feel kind of bummed right now." I say. Everyone nods, and everyone stands up. Having nothing better to do, we walk around school campus. Eventually we end up sitting at our bench, and Jeremie and Avery start talking about some computer thing that I really don't care about. So I walk over next to Yumi.

"Hey Yumi." I say, grabbing her hand and holding it in mine.

"Hey Ulrich." She replies, leaning in closer to me.

"I need to talk to you in private."

"Okay…" I lead her a little ways away from the group.

"I need to talk to you about the whole Avery thing."

"What's on your mind?"

"Have you heard about the whole ordeal with her and Odd?"

"No. I noticed some things were going on with them, and that they were acting kind of strange, but I didn't know something was going on."

"But you did hear the Odd likes Avery, right?"

"Yah."

"Well, after that first thing on Lyoko, Odd ended up carrying Avery back to her room."

"Yah, I know that too."

"Well, apparently, she rejected him. Told him to get out of her room."

"That's harsh."

"Well, later, after some embarrassing confrontations, Odd wasn't sure about her feelings. So her asked her."

"What did she say."

"Flat out told him no."

"Harsh."

"Well…."

"So you want me to go and talk to her?"

"You know, that's why I love you. You always seem to be able to read my thoughts." She blushes and looks away.

"I need you to go and talk to her. Girl-to-girl. I think out of everyone, you can best understand what she's going through."

"I will Ulrich, you can count on me. I know how to worm information out of my cousin." I smile and she smiles back. I give her a quick kiss and we go back to the others.

"…So I need to reconfigure it and see how it goes." Jeremie says, just finishing.

"You tell me how that goes Jeremie. I've got to go, I have stuff to do." I say, giving Yumi another quick kiss on the cheek.

"Like what?"

"Homework." I say, and walk away. I walk back into my room to find Odd sitting there. He's sitting on his bed playing his guitar. Avery's Song. As soon as I walk in, he stops and looks at me.

"Hey Ulrich." He begins to put it away.

"No, no. Don't mind me. Finish the song." He nods at me.

"I might as well start from the beginning." He says. He begins to play, and I sit down on my bed and listen. It's a really good song. Better than most he's written. Trust me, I would know. He finishes, and put his guitar away.

"Thought of any lyrics yet?" I ask him, he shakes his head.

"Do you want to?" Another shake. I walk over to the desk and pull out my homework. Stupid science homework about something that I am never going to use in real life, but I just do it anyway. After I finish, I turn back to Odd, who is staring at the wall next to his bed.

"Hey Odd, you okay?" He doesn't move.

"Yah, I'm fine," He says blankly, "just thinking about earlier."

"Don't worry about it Odd, Avery made a mistake. She already apologized."

"But I do worry about it. I seriously overreacted."

"Everyone overreacts-"

"Not about some girl that isn't even my girlfriend!" Odd is standing now, glaring at me, "I was jealous of you, of you dating the girl I love, and she doesn't even like me!" He sits back down and puts his face in his hands.

"It's okay Odd." He sits up.

"I'll bet this is just another stupid crush."

"It could be. Or it couldn't. There's no way to tell until later. If you still feel this way in later years, most likely not."

"Why the hell does love have to be so complicated?" Something jars my memory when he said that.

"That is the first time I've heard you cuss this entire week Odd. What's up with that?" He looks at me, but just shrugs it off.

"Avery told me she doesn't like swearing. So, I stopped." I smile.

"Yup, you're in love. You would do anything for Avery, wouldn't you?"

"Yah, I would."

"That's love."

"No it's not. I'm just obsessed with a stupid crush."

"You're impossible Odd." I say and turn back around to work on some other homework. "Come on, I'll give you a hand with some of this stuff." He sighs and pulls up a chair. We work on math together for a little while, but eventually we finish all our homework. Odd turns to me with a serious look on his face.

"Do you think Avery likes me? That she was lying when she told me she didn't?" I remember what Avery confessed to me and smile. But then, I remember what I promised Avery.

"Please don't tell Odd…."

"Don't worry, I won't."

"You know what Odd," I say, "I can't say. But my best guess would be yes. I think she does like you."

"Well," Odd sighs, "Either way, because of me, I doubt we'll ever be more than friends."

"Don't doubt yourself Odd, you never know what could happen." I say and stand up. "I'm going to go for a walk, I'll be back later, okay?"

"Okay, sure Ulrich. Just wondering, does this walk have anything to do with Yumi?" He asks and grins.

"Actually no. I'm just bored to death. Homework is only fun for so long, you know?" I wave and walk outside. I actually did intend on going on a walk. Straight to Avery's room. I walk downstairs to her dorm room and knock loudly three times.

"Who is it?" She calls from inside.

"The only person who knows the truth about how you feel about Odd." I say. The door quickly bursts open and Avery drags me inside.

"I told you not to tell anyone!" She says.

"Notice I said I was the only one. Meaning I still haven't told anyone. Don't worry about it, I wouldn't betray your secret." I say and she relaxes.

"Good thing too, or else Yumi would be short one boyfriend."

"Hey, was that a threat?"

"Yah. I was thinking of insulting you, but that was better. So… what did you want?" I blow out a puff of air.

"I wanted to talk to you about earlier."

"What, the dodgeball game? I already apologized."

"First off, no, not that. Second, did you apologize to Odd?"

"Uh… not really."

"Better take care of that soon."

"Yah, I know." She sighs. "So, what did you come to talk about?"

"Why you lied to Odd."

"I didn't lie, I asked him a simple ques-"

"No, not that. He asked if you loved him and you lied to him."

"Who says I lied?"

"You did, when you admitted to me something else."

"What if my feelings have just changed?"

"Have they really?" I give her a look that says 'yah, right.'

"Okay, so maybe they haven't changed."

"So, why did you lie?" She sighs again and sits down on her bed.

"It's a long story-"

"I've got time."

"-That I would rather not tell." She finishes.

"Any particular reason?" I ask her, sitting down next to her.

"Yes."

"And that reason is?"

"I'd rather not say that either."

"Will you tell me anything?"

"No."

"Well, that's a lot of help."

"I did it to…." She mumbles off incoherently.

"What was that?"

"I did it because I'm afraid of Odd, okay?" She says loudly. That definitely took me by surprise.

"You're afraid of Odd? What's there to be scared of?"

"Look, I'm not going to explain it, so don't try. And there is absolutely no way you can possibly worm the information out of me. It's locked up for eternity."

"Eternity is a long time." I say smoothly.

"Okay fine. Maybe not for eternity. I might tell Odd someday, but don't expect it to be soon. Just know that something happened to me in America that I'm not soon going to forget."

"Okay, I won't ask anymore questions. I think I've already overstepped my boundaries."

"Indeed you have." She says fairly, as I stand up and walk over to the door.

"I just want to say one thing." I say, turning around.

"What's that?" She asks, looking at me inquisitively.

"If you don't tell Odd soon, I might be forced to."

"Say what?" She yells, jumping up off the bed. She's glaring at me, she has one hell of a short temper.

"Odd is beginning to get more and more depressed. He's eating less and sleeping less. He doesn't think I notice, but I do. Soon, he might try to do something drastic. If he does, I'll have to tell him." Before she can say anything, I walk outside and close the door.

Uh oh, that means Avery had better get on with it or Ulrich will have to tell. Something that really confused me today was that Avery(the real one that I know) absolutely refused to talk to me. And because of that, she couldn't tell me why. No matter how many times I apologized for absolutely anything I might have done, she refused to say a word. She confuses me.

The next couple chapters are kind of depressing, mostly because that's the way Odd is getting, but there's still a little fluff. Don't worry, after that there will be the biggest, fluffiest chapter I've ever written. I promise. Just know that there won't be much OddxAvery fluff until there. So, thanks for reading, please review, and I leave with a quote:

402. You have a woman banging on the front door and a dog scratching at the back door. Which one do you let in? The dog because it will shut up when you let it in. (please take that kind hearted, all the girls I showed that to thought it was hilarious. Well, all except one.)

396. I have not failed in finding my true love, I just have found 72 people that aren't my true love. (that might possibly be Odd's motto)