I felt bad about taking so long to update last time, especially since it took three weeks for that last, not-so-great chapter, so I decided to update today! I was also kind of excited about getting to the next couple of chapters. Read and review!

Odd was woken at ten the next morning by his four friends for breakfast, which Aelita brought to him in bed. She set a tray with a large stack of waffles in front of him with a warm smile on her face. "I know you're mad at us for fussing over you last night," she said. "So we brought a peace offering. Rosa made them special, just for you!"

Odd smiled slightly at the nice gesture, but he wasn't feeling all that hungry. He honestly hadn't felt hungry since he'd been put on his medications. "Thanks guys," he said as he politely grabbed the fork off of the tray and picked at the food slowly. He laughed as Kiwi jumped up onto his bed, begging for some of his food.

"I know you aren't hungry," Yumi said as she sat down beside Ulrich on the other bed, "but you need to eat something."

"I know," Odd sighed, before actually putting some of the food into his mouth. He chewed the big mouthful with exaggeration. "Happy?" he said as he stuck out his tongue with the chewed food still on it.

Yumi and Aelita wrinkled their noses in pretend disgust and Jeremie shook his head. "Odd, put the food back into your mouth," Ulrich berated him.

Odd grinned and ate. He left three of the four waffles untouched on the plate, but no one said anything else on the subject. "I was talking to the nurse this morning," Ulrich said. "She told me that you have an appointment at the hospital today at 4."

Odd rolled his eyes. "Sounds like a blast," he said sarcastically.

"How are you feeling today?" Jeremie asked tentatively.

"Fine," Odd snapped. "You heard the nurse last night. It was just my medicine."

Everyone sat in an uncomfortable silence. Ulrich looked at his best friend guiltily. He understood why Odd was so frustrated with everything, but he had to worry look out him, whether he liked it or not. Every time the blonde got angry with them, he just had to remind himself that Odd would be more grateful once he was better.

"So…" Aelita said, trying to ease the tension. "What do you guys want to do today?"

"Eh, I'm not really in the mood to go do anything," Yumi said, still in a bit of a slump after the events of the nights before. "I think maybe I should go home soon… hopefully everything has been sorted out…"

Ulrich put his arm around her protectively and she leaned into his chest. "It's all going to work out," he told her.

Jeremie looked at Aelita thoughtfully. "We haven't really worked on your antivirus lately," he said.

"You should go do that now," Odd said. "Don't take time off just because of me. Besides, when was the last time you checked on Xana? He rarely gives us this much time off. It's kind of worrying me."

"Are you sure you want us to go?" Aelita asked, not wanting to leave Odd to be bored.

Odd nodded his head and pulled Kiwi into his lap, petting him lovingly. "In fact, I think Yumi and Ulrich should go too. Yumi, it'll probably help get your mind off of things."

"Odd, we don't want to leave you all by yourself," Ulrich said.

"You won't have to," Odd said as there was a knock at the door. "Sissi's coming over, remember?"

Jeremie, being the closest to the door, opened it and let Sissi in. "Good morning guys," she said in a friendly voice. "What's up?"

Odd smiled as Kiwi ran up to the girl wagging his tail. "They were all about to head off to Jeremie's room," he told her.

"Oh," Sissi said as she sat down beside Odd. She held up a CD in her hand to show it to him. "I brought that mix of the Dandy Warhols I was telling you about."

"Awesome," Odd said. He looked at his other friends pointedly. "Go on guys. I'll see you all later."

Ulrich sighed as he stood up. He offered Yumi a hand, helping her up and following Jeremie and Aelita out of the door. "Later," Yumi said.

"So how about we listen to that CD?" Sissi asked as she stood and went over to the boys' computer and went to put it in. "What's this in here?"

"Hm?" Odd asked. "What's what?"

"The CD in here," Sissi said as she picked up the burnt CD. "It has my name on it."

Odd looked down as a blush spread across his face. "Oh," he said. "I… um… burnt that for you…"

Sissi smiled. "Really?" she asked as she put it back in the CD. "Is it that new Subsonics album you said you'd burn?"

"No…"

"Let's listen to it," Sissi said as she brought up the media player program on the computer. "What's on it?"

"You can listen to it later if you want," Odd told her.

"I want to listen to it now," she said happily. She looked at the track list on the screen. "'Dizzy Miss Lizzy?'" she said with amusement. "Daddy used to play that song for me when I was little."

"Principal Delmas likes the Beatles?" Odd asked in disbelief.

Sissi nodded her head. "Yup," she said while reading the rest of the song title. "He got me into them. Plays their music on his guitar, too."

"He plays the guitar?" Odd's eyes were wide with shock.

"Mhm..." She looked at Odd after seeing on specific song on the list. "I really like this song. I'm kind of surprised you put it on here though."

"Which song?" Odd asked.

"'You and Me,'" Sissi replied. "It's not as upbeat as the rest of the music you like."

"I like Lifehouse a lot actually," Odd said. "Play it."

"Ok." Sissi pressed play and came and sat back over by Odd. "So… how are you feeling?"

"No worse than usual lately," Odd said truthfully. "But no better either…"

Sissi nodded understandingly, and an awkward silence passed between them for a moment as she listened to the words of the song.

All of the things that I want to say
Just aren't coming out right
I'm tripping inwards; you got my head spinning
I don't know where to go from here

Odd watched Sissi intently while she picked up Kiwi a scratched his stomach. Kiwi really liked her, and Odd knew by now that his dog was a great judge of character, better than himself even. If Kiwi liked her and he liked her, than it was ok by him… and hopefully his friends as well. "Sissi?"

Sissi looked up at him questioningly. "Yes, Odd?"

"I… um… well, you see…" Odd was fumbling with what he was trying to say, and Sissi giggled a bit at him. He sighed and looked down. "I've really been having fun… talking to you and stuff…"

"Yea," Sissi said. "I like hanging out with you and your friends."

Odd smiled slightly and looked back up at her. He couldn't remember ever being made so nervous by a girl. "I just really wanted to tell you that I…" He trailed off timidly.

"What is it?" she asked him worriedly as he stopped. "Are you feeling ok?"

"I like you, Sissi" Odd blurted out quickly, his face turning bright red.

Sissi looked at him in shock and frowned a bit. "Oh," she said quietly, her eyes turning sad.

Odd looked down, dejected. "Was that the wrong this to say?" he asked.

Sissi didn't answer him as she stood up. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she walked to the door. "I have to go…"

Odd just watched her leave, not completely realizing what had just happened. It wasn't until he got a phone call two minutes later that he snapped out of it. He picked up his cell phone and saw that it was Yumi, probably to check up on him. "Hello?"

"Hey, Odd. How are you doing over there? Sissi still with you?"

"No," Odd replied miserably. "She… it was pretty disastrous…"

"What was?" Yumi asked in bewilderment.

"Well…"

Sissi lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She was attempting to keep her mind off of what had just happened and off of the guilt growing in her stomach. On her way out of Odd's room, she hadn't even been able to look back at his heartbroken face for fear that she might start to cry. She didn't even know why she'd done in. She'd just felt like she needed to run away.

A knock at her door disturbed her from her thoughts. Sighing, she stood and went to the door and opened it, revealing the girl she'd considered her competition for so long standing there with her arms crossed angrily. "Yumi?" she asked confusedly.

Yumi didn't wait to be let in as she pushed past Sissi and entered. "I can't believe you!" she said, sounding infuriated.

"What are you doing here?" Sissi asked her as she closed the door.

"We talked to Odd," Yumi said. "He told me what happened."

"He did?" Sissi said. She leaned against her door and folded her arms over her chest, looking at the floor. The carpet suddenly looked very interesting to her.

"Yea, he did," Yumi snapped. "How could you do that to him? After all that time you spent with him-"

"As friends," Sissi cut her off.

Yumi glared at her. "You didn't have to hurt him like that! He likes you Sissi. Is it a crime?"

"I like Ulrich," Sissi said suddenly in the prissy tone that Yumi was used to hearing her use. "Remember?"

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, Ulrich is my boyfriend," Yumi said. "And it isn't Ulrich you've been spending all of your time with. It isn't Ulrich you've been nicer to."

Sissi made a soft sound of indignation from her throat and walked past Yumi toward the bed, but Yumi grabbed her arm roughly. She turned her head to glare at the Japanese girl.

"You know what I think?" Yumi asked. "You don't like Ulrich half as much as you think you do."

Sissi yanked her arm from Yumi's grasp and stood up straight, face to face with her. "You don't know what you're talking about," she hissed.

"Sissi," Yumi said in a less harsh tone. "Do you like Odd?"

Sissi feigned amusement. "Ha… me… like Odd… Yumi, you're a real riot, you know that?"

But to her dismay, Yumi didn't relent. "Do you love him?" she asked in a way that made Sissi very uncomfortable. At the silence that met her ears, Yumi smirked. "You do love him don't you?"

"Ok!" Sissi cried. "Maybe I have feelings for him! But… I can't… because we never got along before and… and… it just… wouldn't work."

"That's ridiculous," Yumi said dismissively. "Odd isn't thinking about it that way."

"How do you know that I don't just feel bad for him because he's… because he's…" Sissi looked away wistfully before her back to Yumi.

"Dying?" Yumi finished for her. "You know, it would have been awful if you were pretending to have feelings for him, but it's even worse that you're pretending that you don't. You do love Odd, but if you're going to deny that just because you are scared that he might die, then you don't deserve his love." She stood there, waiting for a response, but Sissi just kept her back to her and stared at her feet. Yumi sighed. "And to think that I actually believed Odd and thought that there was some good in you. Now he's got nothing but a broken heart."

"You're right," Sissi whispered in a muffled voice as Yumi noticed her shoulders shaking through silent sobs. "I don't deserve him… at all…"

"Sissi-"

Just at that moment, they were interrupted by a loud crash that knocked the door down. "What was that?" Sissi cried as she turned around, wiping the tears from her cheeks quickly.

The girls both gasped when they saw Jim standing in the doorway with a strange look in his eyes. "Xana!" Yumi shouted.

Hope you enjoyed it! I'm not positive, but I'd say that there are maybe 4 chapters left of this story (I actually have the very last chapter written, so the ending is pretty much set except for a few details between now and then), and then I'll be moving on to write the sequel of The Way He Would Have Wanted It. Please review this chapter guys!

Next chapter: Turns out Xana was conserving energy for a reason, and it could get one or more of the Lyoko heroes killed!