17. For the longest time he thought of Ulrich as just another dumb jock that got in on a sports scholarship (sometimes he still thinks it).

"Ugh, move it, nerd."

Jeremie looks up to see a girl glowering at him. Her dark hair is held back by a brightly colored headband and her lips are shiny with an overabundance of lip gloss. A brown haired boy stands next to her, a bland, unreadable expression on his face. The boy looks Jeremie over briefly before returning his attention to the girl next to him. Jeremie blinks owlishly at the pair from behind his glasses.

"Are you deaf?" the girl demands. There's a nasal quality to her voice that makes Jeremie wince slightly. "Ugh, honestly. C'mon, Ulrich, we don't want to be late for dinner." She brushes past him, shoulder bumping against his roughly.

The boy, Ulrich, glances at him and shrugs. "Belpois, right?"

"Yeah." Jeremie rubs at his shoulder, looks behind him at where the black-haired girl is stalking across the courtyard, yelling at the younger students to get out of her way. "Your friend's a menace."

"Sissi's alright, mostly. She has her moments."

"Ulrich-dear!" Sissi calls.

Ulrich rolls his eyes, but he's wearing a smile that Jeremie would classify as indulgent. Jeremie doesn't get it. His ears are still ringing from the girl's voice.

"Better not keep her waiting," Ulrich says. "See you in chemistry, Belpois."

Jeremie blinks after him as he ambles over to Sissi, exchanges some type of placating words with her, and slings an arm around her shoulders. It isn't until three days later that Jeremie realizes the girl is the headmaster's daughter.

/

Jeremie keeps to himself, in those early days at Kadic. Being on academic scholarship means he's lucky enough to secure his own room so that he can study in peace. As a result he may be lacking a bit on the socializing-and-gossip part of school, but he doesn't worry about it too much.

In addition to chemistry, he also shares gym class with Ulrich and Sissi.

In chemistry, Ulrich sits toward the back, partnered with Sissi Delmas, of course. They spend the time Ms. Hertz isn't lecturing whispering amongst themselves and, once Jeremie starts actually paying them attention, he catches Sissi giving Ulrich the answers to one of Hertz's chemistry problems on more than one occasion.

He rolls his eyes. It figures that the athlete is the stereotypical slacker and the headmaster's daughter can get away with murder in class.

In gym, Ulrich excels. Call-me-Jim, their gym teacher, uses the boy to demonstrate the different activities, calls him his star starter, and generally fawns over him. After two weeks of tripping over his own feet and sweating profusely as he ducks stray balls, Jim assigns Ulrich to partner with him in class, pulling him away from one of the other football players.

"You're really not that great at sports, are you?" Ulrich asks.

"I have better things to do than chase a ball around a field," Jeremie snaps back.

Ulrich quirks a brow at that, but doesn't say anything. However, the ball he tosses in Jeremie's direction is decidedly faster than the previous one. Jeremie misses and has to scurry to retrieve it. The other boy is smirking faintly when Jeremie jogs back over.

"Mature," Jeremie snipes. He hurls the ball at Ulrich's dumb face. "At least I don't have to cheat at chemistry."

Ulrich fumbles the ball and Jeremie feels pleased at the startled look on Ulrich's face.

/

"We should shut it down. You should have shut it down immediately," Ulrich states.

Jeremie crosses his arms and glowers at him. "Just because you're afraid of heights-"

"I'm not afraid of heights," Ulrich snaps. He returns Jeremie's glare with one of his own. "Only an idiot would think keeping this thing on is a good idea."

"Good thing I have the highest grades in our year, isn't it?"

Ulrich throws his hands up and storms off. Jeremie resists the urge to throw a shoe or textbook at his retreating back. He doesn't understand how Ulrich doesn't see how important this is. All they have to do is get Maya to the tower and it'll be fine.

"He's right," Sissi says, flipping her hair. "Even if he is being melodramatic."

"Maybe he's just used to everyone bowing to his decisions," Jeremie grumbles.

Sissi stares at him, somehow managing to convey disgusted with only a narrowing of her eyes and twist of her mouth. "Sometimes I forget how little you do know, for a self-proclaimed genius." She packs up her bag, pauses to look at Jeremie before following Ulrich. "For the record though, we made a promise and he'll stick with it!" she calls over her shoulder.

Jeremie waits until the clack of her ridiculous shoes has faded before turning to the other blonde boy. Odd has stayed remarkably quiet during the exchange, fiddling with a granola bar he'd pulled from his jacket pocket. "What do you think?" Jeremie asks, looking at Odd.

Odd shrugs, unwrapping the granola bar and taking a bite. "Ulrich has a point," he mumbles around his granola bar. "We were definitely unprepared for facing those things."

"Now you know what to expect," Jeremie counters. "It'll be easy. As soon as Maya's virtualized then we shut it down and Ulrich Stern can stop acting like the world's about to end."

Odd takes another bite of his granola bar, chews it slowly. Jeremie isn't sure how he still has room after the massive amount of breakfast he'd ingested earlier. "You're the genius, Einstein," Odd says finally.

Jeremie rolls his eyes, grabs his own bag to retreat to his room and call Maya.

. . … . .

"You know that's cheating," Jeremie states.

"How is it cheating?" Odd replies.

Ulrich shrugs. "We're just taking advantage of the opportunity the Return afforded us."

"By cheating," Jeremie repeats. He looks up from the laptop screen to frown at the other two boys sitting at the library table with him. "You should have studied before."

"We're studying now," Odd counters.

"And thanks to XANA, we know exactly what we need to study," Ulrich adds, smirking.

Jeremie shakes his head and returns his attention to his laptop and the materialization program he's been working on. If his so-called teammates want to cheat the system instead of actually learning something, that's on them.

. . … . .

"We should let Sissi in on the secret."

"We tried that before, remember?" Jeremie questions. "Worked brilliantly, especially the part where she betrayed us and almost killed Aelita by having the factory shut down."

"We don't know that Aelita would've died."

Jeremie stares at Ulrich evenly, arms folded over his chest. He's tired of this argument. "Look, just because you miss your girlfriend-"

"Sissi and I were not dating."

Jeremie holds his hands up in supplication. "I really don't care what your relationship with Sissi Delmas is," he states. "She betrayed us, despite making an oath to protect the secret. And frankly, she hasn't shown me any reason to trust her since. Don't be an idiot and let your feelings for her get in the way of the job we have to do."

Ulrich glares. "Right. The job we have to do." He turns on his heel and Jeremie winces as his bedroom door slams shut.

. . … . .

"You text like a five-year-old," Jeremie accuses, waving his cell phone at Ulrich's face.

Ulrich raises an eyebrow, face impassive. "I don't know many five-year-olds who can text."

"My point exactly," Jeremie snaps. "Honestly, do you have to check all the boxes for the "dumb jock" stereotype? Can't you at least take a minute out of your busy schedule to type something I don't need to decode?"

Ulrich's face shutters even more. "I thought you were the one who wanted us to keep the secret. Next time I'll hire a skywriter." Ulrich shoves his lunch tray over to Odd, grabs his bag, and heads out.

"Not cool, Einstein," Odd says, looking up from his lunch tray. He waves at Yumi as she approaches. "You should apologize, you know how he gets."

"Maybe if he didn't type like a primary schooler," Jeremie grumbles. He feels his face flush in embarrassment though.

Yumi takes the empty seat next to Jeremie and looks around expectantly. "Where's Ulrich? I thought I saw him here earlier?"

Odd shrugs, eyes Jeremie. "Don't worry about lover boy. He had to see Monsieur Lefort about a history assignment."

Yumi's eyes narrow and Odd yelps suddenly, ducking to rub at his leg under the table. Jeremie presumes Yumi aimed a kick at his shins again. Odd's eyes don't leave Jeremie's though, and Jeremie ducks his head, focuses on his brussel sprouts. He doesn't care what Odd says, Ulrich can suck it up and type like a human. Jeremie doesn't have time to waste deciphering nonsense.

. . … . .

"You should have told us about the vertigo!" Jeremie exclaims.

Ulrich shrugs. "Would it have changed anything?"

"Of course! What if you froze? What if you lost your balance and fell?" Jeremie demands. "You took unnecessary risks for the sake of your pride."

Ulrich's eyes flash and Jeremie wonders, briefly, if he's about to be punched. "It's never been an issue," Ulrich states, voice flat. "I appreciate your concern, but it's under control."

. . … . .

The fact that it's Ulrich who knocks on Jeremie's door after he finishes speaking with Mr. Spieker surprises him. He immediately feels a flush of shame spread through his knotted stomach; choke him briefly before suffusing his face. He'd thought it would've been Yumi, hoped it would have been Aelita, who checked on him.

Ulrich's presence is calm, steadying. Jeremie inhales shakily, thanks him for notifying the rest of the gang about Mr. Spieker's news, and stares at his suitcase as though he's forgotten what it's used for. Ulrich sits down on the bed next to him, doesn't comment on the wetness in Jeremie's eyes, and fills the oppressive silence with a story about Milly and Tamiya and their midnight hunt for the latest scoop. It involves some type of critter (a raccoon? Kiwi? Jeremie isn't sure) and a large swath of mud that left Milly looking like a creature. Apparently her mud-streaked appearance had scared Claire so badly she'd woken Jim with her screams.

Jeremie doesn't quite follow the story, doesn't laugh where he's probably supposed to, but again Ulrich doesn't comment on it. He continues on with a story on Odd's latest antics and Jeremie feels himself relaxing. He resumes folding and packing the things he'll need for the next week, letting Ulrich's quiet voice wash over him. He doesn't realize how long Ulrich's been there until there's a knock on the door and Mr. Spieker pokes his head in, tells him it's time to head out.

Ulrich offers him a small smile, clasps his shoulder once more. "Call, if you need anything," he says.

Jeremie can only nod in gratitude before he follows Mr. Spieker to the car.

. . … . .

"Why didn't you ever mention the dyslexia?" Jeremie asks. It's been bugging him for a while, longer than he'd like to admit. "You know we wouldn't have judged you, right?"

Ulrich raises an eyebrow at him. "Didn't you?"

Jeremie doesn't know how to respond to that. Ulrich shakes his head, gathers his belongings together. He pats Jeremie on the shoulder as he gets up from the table and leaves the library.

Jeremie sits there, mentally reviewing every annoyed thought he'd had over Ulrich's chicken-scratch notes and elementary texts, contemplates every snide comment he'd made on either of them. He knows though, that had Ulrich said something, had he known, he wouldn't have made them. He still feels like a jerk and doesn't know what to do about it.

. . … . .

"You're being ridiculous," Odd says, sprawled across the dingy carpet. He doesn't look away from the screen though, thumbs moving with practiced ease on the controller he's clutching. "Einstein, tell him he's being ridiculous."

"You're being ridiculous," Jeremie parrots obediently.

Ulrich throws popcorn at both their heads. Odd picks the handful aimed at his head off the floor, popping it into his mouth with a muttered ten second rule. Jeremie brushes popcorn kernels off his sweater and out of his hair.

"Seriously," Jeremie says. "You and Yumi are dating, getting jealous because she's talking to a boy would be like her getting jealous because you're talking to Sissi. Or Emily."

"Which she does, which is also ridiculous," Odd adds. "Pass the popcorn bag, stop hogging it, Ricky."

"Don't call me that," Ulrich grumbles. Jeremie catches the flush on his neck and knows they've embarrassed him, even if he won't admit it. Ulrich passes the popcorn over to Odd. Jeremie isn't sure how Odd is still beating him while he's distracted with food. He suspects the game may have been tampered with. "I don't get jealous. It's just that Will…"

"Is her friend," Jeremie states, voice firm. "Just like you're friends with Aelita and Emily and Sissi. Stop being creepily possessive, both of you."

"I'm not being possessive!"

"Dude," Odd says, rolling over to look at him. "Sometimes you are."

"I thought you were smart enough to realize Yumi cares about you. Don't prove me wrong," Jeremie adds. He reaches over for a handful of popcorn and Odd holds the bag out obligingly.

Ulrich scoffs and frowns, but he lets the subject drop and suddenly Odd's gossiping about the new student that started this past week, eyes bright as he throws out crazier and crazier reasons on why the boy started mid-year.

. . … . .

"Hey, Jer, you okay?"

Jeremie groans, contemplates pressing his forehead to the cool porcelain before remembering where he is and quickly reevaluating. He leans his back against the cubicle wall and tries to reassure himself that Kadic has the best custodial staff around. He's not sure he succeeds, but he's too miserable to really care.

"Jer?"

There's a knock on the latched door and Jeremie sighs. "How'd you find me?"

"Theo said you were puking your guts up in here," Ulrich replies. He pauses as if waiting for a response but Jeremie is too busy concentrating on breathing through his mouth. "You okay?"

"Perfect."

He hears Ulrich laugh before another bout of nausea hits him and he's curled over the toilet bowl, retching pathetically. He hates vomiting, always has. It's especially vile when it's composed of fish-and-tea. He flushes the toilet and returns to gingerly leaning against the tiled wall.

"Yeah, sounds that way," Ulrich replies. There's a click and Jeremie isn't surprised to find that Ulrich's picked the lock and opened the door. "You need to see the nurse?"

"Not unless she can give me a new stomach."

Ulrich cracks a smile, leaning against the door frame and assessing Jeremie. "Last night's sushi?"

He pushes the hair off his forehead and sighs heavily. "I'm never eating fish again," Jeremie promises.

Ulrich actually chuckles at that and Jeremie glares darkly at him. To think, the other boy has the gall to call him friend, yet laughs at him in his hour of need. Ulrich catches his sour look and restrains his laughter, settling instead for a wry smile.

"Come on, can you stand?"

"I think my stomach prefers the floor."

"Stop being dramatic, you sound like Sissi." Ulrich stoops, hauling Jeremie to his feet and slinging one of Jeremie's arms over his shoulders. Jeremie feels his stomach lurch at the sudden movement. "Do not throw up on me."

"Where are we going?"

"Infirmary," Ulrich states. Jeremie groans and contemplates vomiting on Ulrich's sneakers. Ulrich tightens his grip on Jeremie's waist in warning. "If I leave you in there you'll just dehydrate yourself."

"At least I'll be in peace."

"Next time, don't take Odd up on his food challenge, even if you are trying to impress Ai."

Jeremie would offer a retort, but he's too busy concentrating on not throwing up. He has a sneaking suspicion that Ulrich planned it that way.

. . … . .

Odd's the one who texts the group with the news. Jeremie stares at the message dumbly, dinner plate forgotten. Ulrich's mother passed.

Yumi's response is fairly quick, she must not be working tonight. What? When? How is he?

2 days ago. Just found out.

Don't know. Taking a plane there tonight.

When's the funeral? Yumi types.

WHAT? HOW? Aelita replies, followed quickly by: Sorry, hit all caps. But seriously, what?!

Not sure, will keep u posted.

Jeremie exits the text message without replying. He thumbs over the keys on his phone before pressing and holding number 5, waits until it begins ringing. He isn't sure if Ulrich will answer, if this is a stupid idea, but it would be weirder to cancel the call now.

"Jer?" Ulrich asks.

Jeremie takes a breath. "Odd told us. About your mother." The other end of the line is silent. Jeremie checks the call screen quickly to see if they've been disconnected, but the seconds are still ticking upward. He clears his throat. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, Ulrich."

"Thanks, Jer," Ulrich sighs. "It's alright though. I'm alright." There's a note to his voice that Jeremie can't quite pick apart, too much static on the line, too much distance between them.

Jeremie swallows, remembers the words Ulrich had told him all those years ago. "It's going to suck," he says. "Some days it'll suck a little less, and you'll be happy about that, then you'll feel guilty that you're happy it doesn't suck. But, just, I know you have your sister, but if you ever need to…"

"Thanks, Jer," Ulrich repeats. And this time it sounds genuine, sounds like Ulrich again. Jeremie feels his shoulders relax. "I mean it. Thank you."

"Yeah, uh, no problem."

They fall into silence, and Jeremie has a suspicion that Ulrich's fighting back tears, judging by the hitches in his breathing. Before he can second guess himself, Jeremie launches into the story he had sworn he would never tell anyone, had sworn Yumi to never tell anyone. The one about his visit to Yumi's the previous weekend and how he'd ended up being accosted by a hundred pigeons, two dogs, and a stray cat at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

Ulrich huffs a laugh, it sounds wetter than usual, but Jeremie doesn't comment on it.