Please note: I do not support Ulrich's criticisms of the Løvene football team.

1. Sometimes he thought he was the sanest one of all his friends.

"So, what's your favorite sport?" the brown-haired one, Ulrich, asks.

Jeremie doesn't bother to look up from the screen in front of him. He doubts that the other boy is speaking to him. Everyone knows his limitations when it comes to gym class. Even the younger years, unfortunately.

"Eh," Odd replies. "I'm not huge on sports, I guess skiing and I gotta support the Løvene, you know?"

"You're kidding, they're terrible!" Ulrich laughs.

"Hey! That's my national team you're talking about!"

"Too bad the last time they were in FIFA was back in 1998."

There's a grunt and a groan followed by a yelp and Jeremie does look up then. The two boys are rolling around on his dorm room floor, elbowing each other and just generally rough-housing. Jeremie stares at them, bewildered. "What are you fighting about?"

Odd looks up from where Ulrich has him temporarily pinned to the carpet. "Fighting? We aren't fighting, are we?"

Ulrich looks at Jeremie, eyebrows pulled together in confusion. "No, why would we be fighting?"

Jeremie blinks at them both, shakes his head, and goes back to looking at the source codes.

. . … . .

"No."

"Come on, Einstein, it'll be awesome!"

"No, Odd."

Odd pouts the whole way to chemistry, but Jeremie ignores him. He doesn't care how much Odd pouts, he is not setting their lab station on fire. Again.

. . … . .

He's sitting on his favorite bench in the courtyard, getting his recommended fifteen minutes of sunlight, when someone plunks down next to him. Judging by the fact that he doesn't immediately have appendages jostling him, he knows it's not Odd. He glances over, sees Yumi holding two coffees and smiles.

"How's the code coming?" Yumi asks. She holds out one of the coffee cups and he takes it gratefully.

"It's trickier than I anticipated," he admits. He taps the edge of his laptop distractedly. "Aelita is linked more closely than I imagined she'd be."

"I thought you said you could isolate her coding?"

"I can," he agrees. He takes a sip of the hot coffee. He knows it doesn't work that quickly, but he imagines he can feel the caffeine infusing his veins already. His headache already seems to be receding. "The materialization program is what's going to be hard. There's so much data here that I don't even know where to begin." He takes another sip of coffee, eyes scanning the programming text.

"Do you think Emily is pretty?"

Jeremie chokes on his mouthful of coffee and rubs at his watering eyes. When the tears clear he blinks at Yumi, confused. "Pardon?" he rasps.

"Emily," she nods over to where the brown-haired girl is laughing across the quad. "Do you think she's pretty?"

Jeremie glances over at where the other girl and Ulrich are talking by the library stairs. Yumi is still beside him and he sighs, pushes his glasses up from where they slipped down his nose during his coughing fit. "I guess," he says.

Yumi spares him a look before returning to studying the two. "She and Ulrich seem pretty close lately."

"I guess." He shrugs, setting the coffee carefully on the ground by his feet, before returning to his programming.

"Are they dating?"

Jeremie rolls his eyes, typing in a few commands. "I don't know, ask Ulrich."

"Ulrich doesn't like to talk about personal stuff."

"Then why would he tell me?" Jeremie asks.

Yumi shrugs and goes back to drinking her own coffee. "I don't know, boy talk?"

Jeremie snorts. "Then ask Odd? Ulrich and I don't have a lot in common."

Yumi sighs and crosses her legs, resuming her vigil. "I was just curious what he sees in her."

Jeremie pauses and looks at her. "Look, if you like him you should-"

"Ulrich and I are just friends."

"Then you shouldn't care if he's into Emily," Jeremie replies. He turns back to the computer as it beeps and he frowns. "There's an alert from the supercomputer," he says. "Looks like break's over, come on. Go time." Yumi groans as she gets to her feet.

. . … . .

Jeremie stares at them incredulously. "Have you lost your minds?" he asks.

Odd shrugs and runs fingers through his hair. "What's got your undies in a twist, Einstein? Nothing went wrong."

Jeremie feels his mouth work, but no sounds come out. Ulrich offers him a one-shouldered shrug and pats down his pockets. "Look at it as a feat for science, yeah?"

"Do you hear them?" Jeremie asks, turning to Yumi and Aelita for support.

"I hear them," Yumi replies, voice dry. She has her arms crossed, but her eyes are bright and Jeremie suspects she isn't wholly on his side after all. "You two are insane." There's definitely a smile there, and Jeremie groans loudly.

Odd grins brightly and slings an arm around Ulrich's shoulders. "Come on, you know it was brilliant!"

Aelita doesn't try to hide her smile. She throws herself on both boys, wrapping them in a hug. "Jeremie is right!" she exclaims. "That was utterly reckless, but you did make quite an entrance!"

"You materialized in the same scanner," Jeremie mutters. "Did you want a Kiwi-incident repeat?"

Odd shrugs. "At least I don't have to worry about a tail with Ulrich."

"Thanks," Ulrich replies. He shrugs and looks at Jeremie. "You said we were in a time-crunch," he points out.

Jeremie sighs, exasperated. "Next time I say "we're in a hurry," that doesn't mean jump in the same scanner and give Jeremie a heart-attack. Just to be clear."

"Got it," Odd replies brightly. "But the other times are cool, right?"

. . … . .

Aelita is lounging on his bed, idly flipping through a magazine while he works on the programming for his newest robot. She has the iPod hooked up to the speaker and is playing some kind of jazz music that she's gotten into lately. He's bent over, working with the wiring and attempting to figure out why the robot only skitters sideways like a crab instead of moving forward, listening to the music.

"We should go skydiving after we graduate."

He startles, and the robot skitters to the left and topples over on the thin carpeting. "What?" he asks. He half twists to stare at her.

Aelita shifts around, holding the magazine up. It's some kind of travel magazine, he realizes. "Skydiving," she repeats. She brushes her pink-blonde hair out of her eyes and smiles at him. "There's a place in Bouloc, see?"

"Wait, back-up. Skydiving?"

"Yeah, wouldn't that be fun?"

He blinks at her. "You want to jump out of a plane…willingly? When it isn't crashing?"

Aelita laughs, sitting up and crossing her feet. She wiggles her toes and he's momentarily distracted by the bright pink llama socks she's wearing. "We'd have a parachute," she replies. She points to the pictures in the magazine. "Look how gorgeous the scenery is."

"Uh-huh," he replies doubtfully.

She leans over and rights the fallen robot. "It'll be so much fun!"

She dog-ears the page, still smiling. "After graduation, huh?" he asks.

Her smile widens and she leans over further, planting a kiss on his cheek. "It'll be awesome!"