Chapter 8: Date

The next day, Ulrich wakes up with his body feeling like he was hit by a few semi-trucks.

Dang, Sword Hunter really did a number on me. I knew I was going to feel this in the morning.

"So you're finally awake," Odd asks as Ulrich sees that he is already dressed.

"What are you doing up already Odd?" Ulrich asked as a feeling of pain came with every time he moved.

"I was just hoping that I could make it to the breakfast before the people that know me show up."

"You really should stop eating so much Odd, or this place is going to go bankrupted," Ulrich joked.

"I'm a growing boy," Odd answers. "I need to eat."

Just then, Odd's phone rings and he gets a scared face when he sees the Caller ID say Sam and pushes the call end button. "Who was it?" Ulrich asked.

"It was Sam, she kind of found out about my other dates and is calling me every ten minutes," Odd replied nervously.

"She is going to kill you when you get back."

"I'm kind of hoping that she cools down before then."

"That could work, in five years or so she might forgive you," Ulrich said. "You're going to have to get her something really good if you ever want to see her without glaring at you."

"Yeah yeah, but now I need to get to breakfast, see you later," Odd said as he runs out the door and Kiwi jumps on Ulrich's bed.

Ulrich pets the dog as he thinks.

He thinks he has girl trouble.

Now a little later, Aelita is looking at herself in the mirror and Yumi asks. "So why are you spending so much time in the mirror Aelita?"

"Jeremy is taking me sightseeing today: to the Museum, then to the Empire State Building, and relax in Central Park."

"You have a big date today," Yumi replied as Aelita looks at her roommate and her cheeks became a light shade of red.

"What makes you say, it's a date?" Aelita asks shyly, looking away from Yumi.

"Well anyway, I hope you have fun today."

"Thanks Yumi, do you have anything planned today with Ulrich?"

"No," Yumi replied coldly.

"Are you sure you are ok Yumi," Aelita asks in concern. "You haven't seemed like yourself when Ulrich comes up in the question."

"I don't know what you are talking about, but can we just drop it?" Yumi snaps back, sending a small bit of fear up her roommate's spine.

"Well, I hope you have a good day today," Aelita replied nervously as she walked out the door.

Do I hate Ulrich? If not, what do I feel towards him?

She thinks as she holds a pillow close to her chest and hugs it tightly.

Now as Aelita is being lead out by Jeremy, sitting in a chair in the lobby, Shadow moves down his newspaper and thinks.

I see, they're dating, this is going to be twice as easy to torture her and after I'm done, she won't even trust her own shadow.

Now in a dark room, someone is typing on a computer as he says. "My virus worked perfectly, every time the towers are activated it will get stronger, and by the end of this tournament, Lyoko won't just be a game anymore. And look at this, the next match is about to start."

Now with Jeremy and Aelita as Jeremy signals a taxi, unknowing of the person following them and signals a taxi of his own.

Now a little later as Jeremy is helping Aelita out of the taxi, they walk up the stairs just as Aelita has a scared look on her face and stops.

"Aelita, what's wrong?" Jeremy asks as she points to Shadow, who has his attention elsewhere at the statues that are on either side of the main door.

Jeremy walks up to the teen and asks in an angry tone. "What do you think you are doing here?"

Shadow jumps back and replies. "Looking at these statues, and about to go inside, what's it to you?"

"I know you are trying to scare Aelita, so stop following us and leave her alone or else!"

"Hey, I don't know what your girlfriend has told you, but I have a personal life as well and fine art happens to be one of my interests. Besides, I was here before you, so it is more like you followed me. Now let me go on with my day."

Jeremy walks off as a grin forms on Shadow's face as he walks into the building.

"Do you still want to go into the museum Aelita?" Jeremy asks as she shakes it off and nods her head in reply.

Now in the museum, they look through the different art until they are looking at Starry Night as Aelita thinks aloud. "I know he must have followed us, but how did he beat us here?"

"Stop thinking about it Aelita," Jeremy replied. "Forget him and let's enjoy the time we have together."

"Alright Jeremy," she answered as she could feel a presents behind her.

"Ah Starry Night, one of my favorite Van Gogh paintings, but I think my favorite is the one he did of himself after he cut off his own ear."

They turned around to see Shadow admiring the painting as he continued. "People say that he did that as a token of his love to his girl, but others say he did it to stop the voices he heard in his head. I'm going with the second one myself. If you think about it, it makes more sense."

"Leave us alone Shadow," Jeremy replied as Shadow held out his hands in defense.

"Alright, I will leave you two alone on your date, here," he said as he holds out some cash. "Have a romantic dinner, on me."

Aelita then pushes his hand away and replies. "Please, just go away."

"Fine, have a good time," he replied as he walked off.

"Aelita, are you ok?" Jeremy asked in concerned as she replied by shaking her head.

"Alright, we can leave and head over to the next place on our list," he ensured her as they walked out, but not before hearing.

"Have fun at the Empire State Building."

Aelita is shocked and frighten at Shadow's comment as he added. "The view will leave you, breathless."

He then walks off as Jeremy glares at him and sees that his girlfriend is terrified.

"How could he know?" she asked over and over.

Now a little later with Ulrich, he is watching TV. "Today of the Lyoko Tournament, the winner was Team Shadow and tomorrow's next fight is Team Project VS Team Shadow," he then changes the channel. "Two trains that were filled with toxic waste almost collided, the destruction would have been devastating to the environment and an investigation is being done," he changes it again and sees Sword Hunter's interview.

There is a large number of people in the window behind her, many guys holding up signs that say Marry me or Will you go out with me Sword Hunter? While all of the girls are dressed like Sword Hunter as the host asks. "So Sword Hunter, is there any lucky guy on your mind?"

"Sorry, I'm still single. I'm just too shy around them," she replied as she giggled as well.

"Well, there have been some rumors that you have your eyes on the Lyoko Underdog's Team Kiwi's leader Ulrich. Any comment?"

"Those are just rumors, I'm just teaching him on how to use that sword of his."

"So how do you think your team will do this year? Your team was very close last year against Team Project. Do you think you can beat them this time?"

"We have been training all year and we will beat them this time, what my team did to Team Kiwi yesterday is just a sample of what is about to come."

Then Ulrich turned off the TV and thought.

Maybe Yumi has something planned today. I'm bored out of my mind.

He then walks out of his room and knocks on Yumi's door, it opens to show Yumi in her bathing suit and a shot of red covered his cheeks. "Ah, hey Yumi, are you heading to the pool?"

"What's it to you?" she asked coldly.

"I was just wondering if I could come with you."

"Sure," she answered as she closed her door and walked off to the elevator.

Now a little while later at the pool, Yumi would seem to avoid Ulrich anytime she could while they were swimming. She wouldn't even crack him a smile as she would swim by.

Now Ulrich is getting a bit annoyed by her actions towards him so he thinks of a way for her to look at him as he sees the diving boards.

He gets out of the water and heads over to the diving boards as Yumi gets out of the water and lies down on the folding chair.

Then she hears someone say. "Hey look, someone is going off the high dive."

She looks up to see Ulrich and a shock look comes over her face.

What is he doing up there?

He then goes to jump off the board as all of a sudden he trips and belly flops right on the water.

ULRICH!

She thinks as everyone that saw it can tell that must have hurt and she dives into the water and drags him out.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

Besides being a really bad shade of red he looks alright. "Well, that wasn't suppose to happen," he answered as he sat back up.

Now with Aelita and Jeremy as they are relaxing in the park, even though they have been trying to enjoy their time together, Aelita has been getting the feeling that all day they are being followed or watched and kept looking over her shoulder every few seconds.

Now as they are sitting down on the bench, Aelita seems to be scanning the area to only see other people relaxing in the park. "Aelita, you need to calm down."

"I know Jeremy, I ruined our time together, but I can't help it. I feel as if someone is staring a hole in the back of my head," she then looks behind her, but no one is there.

"Shadow probably just made a lucky guess. I doubt he has been following us all day."

"Maybe your right Jeremy, I should just enjoy the time we have together," Aelita replied calmly, taking a large sigh of relief.

"I know what will help. I will get us some ice-cream. Strawberry right?" he asks as she nods and he walks off.

He is now at the ice-cream trolley, being second inline as the person in front of him asks for a strawberry ice-cream. Then he turns around and Jeremy is shocked to see it is Shadow. "What are you doing here, Shadow?"

"Again, I was here before you, so you can't accuse me of anything. And it's peaceful, so I like to come here."

"I swear, if I find out that you are trying to torture Aelita, I will..."

Jeremy threatens as Shadow defends with a cocky attitude. "I would never do such a thing, but as a peace offering, give this ice-cream to your girlfriend. I'm going to hope that she likes strawberry," He then offers the ice-cream as Jeremy just smacks it out of Shadow's hand.

"Leave Aelita alone," Jeremy said as Shadow replies with a smirk on his face.

"Alright, give you and your girlfriend your make-out space. Just you two stop following me, it is getting quite annoying."

Then Shadow walks off as he thinks.

This is getting very, interesting.

Now with Ulrich and Yumi walking back to their rooms, Yumi said. "I can't believe you would do that, don't you have a fear of heights?"

He rubs the back of his head as he replied. "I must have forgotten. That's probably the reason I fell."

"Next time, think before doing something like that," she added as they approached their rooms.

But before Yumi opened hers, Ulrich says. "Yumi, can I ask you something?"

"Sure," she replied.

But just for being the evil one I am, just then a young woman that worked in the Hotel, holding a bouquet of black roses comes up and asks. "Miss. Ishiyama?"

"Yes," the dark hair one replied.

"These were sent here for you, and also my little sister is a really big fan of yours," she hands Yumi the flowers and hold out a pad of paper and a pen. "Could you give her your autograph?"

Yumi takes the pen and paper and signs it, then she hands it back as the woman says. "Thank you very much."

She walks off as Yumi looks at the flowers and then looks at the card attached to it. "Do a good job in the tournament, Luck, Will." she read allowed then asked. "So, what did you want to ask me?"

"Never mind," he answered coldly as he walked back into his room, leaving Yumi a bit confused.

To Be Continue

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