The Online Couple
By Matthew Rozier
Chapter 8
Odd finished his shower and headed downstairs after getting dressed. Man, I'm hungry, he thought. Once he had gotten his food, he sat down with his friends at their normal table.
"Hey, Odd," said the four of them at the same time.
"Where's your girlfriend?" said Yumi in a teasing tone.
"Oh, she's somewhere," said Odd, looking around. "Maybe she's freshening up for me." He smiled and went back to his lunch.
"Oh, Odd-" said Ulrich suddenly.
"Yeah, Ulrich?"
"I ran into Herve and Nicholas on my way down here. He said to tell you to stay away from Sissi."
"Ha, I'd like to see him try to keep me away from her. What a loser."
The four friends laughed and finished their lunches. Jeremie and Aelita when off to Jeremie's room to do some more work on her antivirus and Yumi and Ulrich went off into town to get some ice cream. Odd went outside and lay on the grass, watching the clouds. It was such a nice day.
Sissi had overslept as well, having had a dream similar to Odd's. She had finished her shower and finished drying herself off. She had just finished putting on her underwear when Herve and Nicholas burst into the showers. Startled, she stood there in her underwear, for a couple of seconds. Then she realized and covered herself with her pink towel. "What are you doing," she yelled. "You know you aren't supposed to be in here you creeps, you perverts, you!" She screamed, but Herve put his hand over her mouth. Sissi dropped her towel.
"Sissi, now you listen to me: you'd better stay away from Della Robbia. He's trouble."
Sissi squirmed out of Herve's grip and screamed again. Herve quickly regained his grip on her and covered her mouth. "Sissi, shut up and listen to me!" Sissi whimpered and set her terrified eyes on Nicholas, who was just standing there watching. She begged him for help with her eyes, but he did nothing. Herve continued. "Della Robbia is trouble. You'd best stay away from him. You know how he is always hanging out with those friends of his—how they are always snooping around?" Sissi looked lowered her eyes and nodded slowly. "Well, I'm sure they are up to no good. You know how Jim is so suspicious of them? I'm beginning to think that he is right in his suspicions and I am determined to find out what they are always up to. Until I find out, you'd better stay away from Della Robbia, you hear?" Sissi squirmed and sunk her teeth into Herve's hand. He yelped and loosened his grip on her. Nicholas was to slow to react and Sissi dashed out the door, running straight into Jim. Jim grabbed her bathrobe and quickly covered her up, giving a very stern look at Nicholas and Herve. He let Sissi go off to her room.
"What's going on here!" asked Jim loudly and in an angry voice.
"I-uh, we were just-" stammered Herve. Jim gave him a hard look.
"Don't you know that you're not allowed in the girl's showers?"
"Uh, yes sir, we just wanted to talk to Sissi."
"In the showers? Couldn't that have waited? What if there were other girls in here?"
"Uh . . ."
"Hadn't thought about that, huh? Or had you? You guys are going straight to the principal's office. I can only imagine what he'll do with you, since it's his daughter we're talking about here."
"But it was Herve's idea," said Nicholas. "I had nothing-"
"I don't care; you both were in there, who knows what else you were doing in there." Jim took them both by the ear and dragged them off to Mr. Delma's office.