It was 7:45 am at Kadic Academy, and Clementine had just finished her small breakfast of 2 toast slices and orange juice. Odd, on the other hand, had the remnants of his breakfast scattered all over the table.
"Ah, eight slices of toast and three bananas, not bad, huh?" he asks, patting his chest. Clementine simply rolled her eyes and pushed away the banana peel that invaded her space. Odd looked over to Jeremie and asked, "Hey are you skipping gym class again?"
"Yup," Jeremie nodded as he ate a slice of toast. "It gives me time to work on Aelita's materialization." He wasn't as athletic as the rest of his friends, so missing gym to work was a win-win for him.
"And here I thought you were a goodie two shoes," Clementine snickered. "Who knew that our resident genius was such a bad boy."
"Anyways, let's hurry. I don't want to be late for history," Jeremie said as he stood up from his seat, dirty dishes in hand. Odd and Clementine followed suit and walked outside.
The 8 o'clock bell rang in the air as day students walked inside. That meant Yumi would be walking in too.
Clementine searched for her friend in black. "Hey, Yumi!" she shouts once she spotted her. She waved her arm in the air, flagging her down.
"Hello," she greeted, walking over to where Clementine, Odd, and Jeremie stood. Yumi looked around, presumably for Ulrich, but her eyes widened. "Hey, look over there, it's Ulrich!"
The three looked over to where Yumi was staring, only to see Ulrich sitting on the cafeteria steps with… Sissi?!
"But… what's he doing with her?" Odd asks. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Hey, Ulrich!"
"He looks so miserable, why's he with her?" Clementine questions as well, hands on her hips. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but Ulrich scooted away from Sissi, who had a smug smile on her face. With every passing second she scooted closer to him, only repelling Ulrich more.
Finally, she drags him from the steps. "C'mon, c'mon!" Clementine could hear the queen bee sing to Ulrich.
"Huh?" The group was collectively shocked. This is totally out of the norm!
It was time for history class, and Sissi was still stuck to Ulrich's side like glue. She was even openly staring at him with goo-goo eyes, though Clementine could sense his discomfort as he tried to take notes.
"In the 17th century, all European states were governed by either a king or a prince. They ruled over mainly peasant populations," the teacher lectured, but Clementine would have cared less about that. There were other important matters at hand!
"Hey, what's going on with them? I'm seeing things," Odd whispered to Jeremie, though Clementine had to strain her ears since she sat at the table to their left. "Ulrich and Sissi, that's weird."
"Yeah, but check out how jealous Herve is!" Clementine said. She had to contain her laughter as she caught Herve's intense stare.
The two chuckled until they heard a sharp, "Odd! Clementine! Are you two even listening to me?" The teacher had paused his lecture to demand their attention. The two smiled apologetically as students around them giggled at their luck.
The bell rang and Ulrich was walking side by side with Sissi. He did look incredibly reluctant about it, though.
"We have some important things to talk about, Sissi," Odd said as he grabbed her by the arm. "C'mon, hurry!" Sissi's protests grew faint as the two walked off.
"Mind explaining?" Ulrich turned to see Jeremie and Clementine leaning against the wall next to him.
Jeremie and Clementine led Ulrich to a secluded spot, with Odd and Sissi not to far away.
"Okay, spill. What's this whole ordeal, Ulrich? You haven't been brainwashed, have you?" Clementine demanded, hands on her hips.
Ulrich shook his head and took a deep breath. "Okay here goes: I'm in a jam. Big time. For years I've, uh… been keeping a diary," he quietly mumbled, averting his eyes away.
"A what?" Jeremie and Clementine ask simultaneously.
"A diary!" Ulrich shouts a bit too loudly, bristling up. Clementine would've laughed, but with Ulrich's embarrassed expression, it died down quickly. "And Sissi found it and… now she's blackmailing me. I have to go out with her." He looks back to see her talking to Odd, unimpressed with whatever he was telling her. "If she thinks she'll win me over that way, she's wrong."
Clementine's eyes narrowed, her whole body shaking. "Why that…! I'll give her a peace of my mind!" She was about to march over to her, fists clenched, when she's stopped by the two boys.
"Hold on a second. In this 'diary' of yours, did you talk about XANA or Lyoko in your diary?" asked Jeremie, arms crossed over his chest. This question halts the ginger in her steps, and she turned around.
"Well, yeah," Ulrich admits, "and if I don't do what Sissi says, she's gonna tell everybody. I don't know what to do."
"Don't worry, Ulrich," Jeremie reassures him, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "While you're at the pool, Yumi and I will look around. We'll find your diary, you'll see."
"Yeah, they'll get it back, you'll see!" Clementine adds, an earnest smile on her face. "Sissi will be off your back in no time!"
"The answer is no!" Sissi shouts, interrupting their conversation. "For the last time, I did not have a nose job, so stop asking, huh?!"
"Cut it out, Odd! Leave her alone, will ya?" Ulrich walks over to them and takes Sissi away with his arm around her waist. The girl looked over her shoulder and sends them a satisfied smirk.
"It's nothing, we'll explain," Jeremie reassures Odd, who was still confused over it all.
"Still, even if it's because of blackmail, it's still unsettling to watch them," Clementine commented as she watched the "couple" walked away.
A bus is ready to take Clementine's gym class to the local pool for swimming exercises. She carried her orange swimsuit and towel in her maroon backpack and walked up to the bus.
"Take a look, everyone. Not bad, huh? This bus is the latest in modern technology," Jim bragged to anyone that would listen, "It's electricity driven, so not only is it non-polluting, it's powerful, too."
"Electric and powerful, too, huh? I'll bet you this crate goes about as fast as a snail," Odd comments, climbing up the steps of the bus. Jim growls at the insult, and Clementine chuckled as she followed. She greets the driver and sits in the seat in front of Odd.
Unknowingly to everybody, though, a mysterious smoke floats under the bus and a red insignia flashes in one of the headlights. It died down as quickly as it came before sparks envelope the wheel, surprising the driver.
Clementine could hear the loud confusion of Jim and the driver, and she craned her neck to catch a glimpse. Ulrich and Sissi sit across from Odd, and she shoots a questioning glance at him. Ulrich whispers in Odd's ear, who passes the message to Clementine, and the bus moves forward.
After a while, though, it's evident that something is wrong: the bus was moving unusually slow. Every other car was surpassing the bus at quicker speeds.
"We should call Jeremie," Clementine whispers to Odd and Ulrich. They nod in agreement and Odd dialed Jeremie on his phone.
"Hey, Jeremie? Something's wrong with the bus. We're zipping along at two miles an hour," he reports to the genius. "Okay, gotcha." He hangs up and tell the two, "He's running a scan on Lyoko."
"Let's hope it's just a fluke," Clementine sighed. She turned around and sat in her seat.
Fifteen minutes pass, and a biker outruns the bus. Clementine drummed her fingers on her leg. XANA was definitely up to something. After all, the bus was electric-powered. Her drumming quickened at this thought.
She glanced over at Ulrich and Sissi, who were bickering over something. Clementine's eyebrows shot up. Something's up if they're suddenly fighting. It's been puppies and rainbows ever since this morning. Well, for her, anyway.
Sissi's phone rings, and her angry expression turns shocked. After hanging up, she can hear Ulrich tell her proudly, "There, you see? It's good to have real friends, isn't it?"
Odd pats the seat next to him, and Ulrich switches seats. Clementine high-fives him as he fills them in about Yumi blackmailing Sissi back into giving Ulrich his diary.
"What's going on now? This is weird!" exclaimed the bus driver. Suddenly, the bus went from a snail's pace to a rocketing speed, even switching lanes and passing other cars! The students screamed, and Clementine rushed up to the front of the bus with Odd and Ulrich, ignoring Jim's outburst.
"What's going on with this bus?" asked Ulrich to the bus driver.
"God, kid, I wish I knew! All I know is that it's out of control!" As he explained, the wheel moved on its own, the sparks dancing all around it.
"Hey, it seemed to be working okay before you recharged the batteries, right?"
"Yeah, everything was just fine, but now, I can't…"
The trio share a glance and Clementine immediately dialed Jeremie's number. "Clementine, what's happening, huh?"
"We're in trouble. XANA has taken complete control of the bus, and it started going at a breaknecking speed," she explained as she walks back to her seat with her friends.
"Okay, give me a sec. I wonder what XANA's trying to do… Where are you guys?"
Clementine glanced outside. "At the corner of Washington Street and Franklin Avenue."
"I'll call you back as soon as I can localize you." Clementine presses the end button and sits back down. "We're in for a rough ride, guys," she tells them.
"Aelita's gonna need a hand on Lyoko," Odd mused, "We've got to go."
Ulrich's eyebrows narrowed. "Then you go. I'll stay here."
"I'll stay as well. This speed demon will have to deal with me," Clementine added, punching her left fist to her open right palm.
Towards the front of the bus, Jim and the driver's attempts to gain control of the wheel were futile; it had a mind of its own. Odd walked up to the front of the doorway and pressed the emergency exit button. Jim yelled for him, but he had already made his escape. Odd landed on the concrete and staggered his way back to the school.
"Oncoming traffic up ahead!" Clementine reported. She pointed to the busy street to Ulrich.
"Take off your backpacks and use them as airbags!" he ordered to the students.
"Do as he says! Get low on the ground!" she adds. The bus barreled through two cars and narrowly dodged a garbage truck, but it continued to speed up, going just over 150 kilometers per hour.
Ulrich called Jeremie from his cell phone. "We've just gone through the Constellation Intersection," he reported to him.
"Don't worry, guys, I've got you spotted now. But I still don't understand what XANA is trying to do…"
Clementine leaned into the phone. "Odd managed to get off the bus, so he should be coming your way."
She can hear Jeremie typing onto the keyboard. Suddenly he gasped. "Clem, Ulrich! XANA is launching the bus on the petrochemical complex!"
"What?!" Ulrich exclaimed and Clementine gasped. "First, a nuclear power plant, and now this? We'll explode upon impact!"
They rushed to the front of the bus. Jim and the driver who continued to stop the bus to no avail.
"Jim, Jeremie thinks we're headed straight for the petrochemical plant," Ulrich informed the adults.
"You mind telling me how he knows that?" demanded the gym teacher.
"Uh, we can tell you that later," interrupted Clementine as she stepped forward, although it wouldn't matter. "But for now you just have to trust him. He can help us."
Jim rose from the ground. "Okay, okay."
Clementine smiled at Jim and turned around to meet Sissi, who looked regretful.
"Uh, Ulrich? I'm very sorry about your diary. It was wrong to take it," she apologized. "Please forgive me. Can I help in any way?" Clementine was shocked at her sudden humility and glanced at Ulrich. He was silent for a moment and before passing his phone to her.
"Here, take my phone," he told her, "You can be the go-between for Jeremie and us." She nodded at them with a smile.
The bus emerged from the tunnel and zoomed by a police car. Catching it breaking the speed limit, the police siren blared at the bus followed it.
"Guys, we got company!" the ginger reported to the front as more police cars tailed the bus.
"Jeremie says we're gonna turn left," Sissi informed Clementine and Ulrich.
"Alright, everyone over here with us!" Ulrich waved the students to the left side of the bus. The bus sharply turned left, and the sudden change in momentum still threw them to the windows of the bus. The shriek of the bus leaning too hard on the railing rang in the air, but it continued forward.
"Maybe we should jump off the bus, what do you think? Might just be the best idea, that way at least we won't go crashing into the petrochemical plant," Jim suggested to them.
Sissi glared at Jim. "At this speed, there's no way we could survive."
"Yeah, we'd be roadkill. Odd was lucky he escaped alive," Clementine agreed. Wait a minute, agreed?
Ulrich gestured for his phone and asked, "Jeremie, how are things on Lyoko?"
"Aelita and Yumi are almost at the tower, except that they're caught in a sandstorm."
"Okay, we'll wait a little while longer." Ulrich sets the phone down. "XANA's doing everything in his power to stop them from deactivating the tower," he told his ginger friend.
"They'll find a way, I'm sure of it. We'll win and this will end soon enough," Clementine reassured, although it was more to herself than the others.
She hated this. She hated being scared. Fear blocked out any rational thought, and she knew that pretty well. Without thinking straight, one could end up committing irreversible mistakes. Others could take advantage of fear, manipulating them and further contort their irrational thoughts-
Clementine shuddered and snapped out of her thoughts. We will win. There's no need to be scared.
"You'll be reaching the complex in ten minutes. Careful, you're gonna turn left again."
"Everyone to the left!" Sissi shouts, and they are tossed against the side of the bus again.
The number of police cars increased, but the bus didn't stop. XANA certainly didn't care as he led the bus through more turns.
"Listen, we only have four minutes left before we get to the complex. How are things on Lyoko?" Ulrich asked through the phone.
"Okay, Aelita and Odd are handling it."
"So Odd made it to the factory," grinned Clementine. "Good."
Ulrich glanced at the police cars before nodding to Jim, who destroyed the glass to the emergency hammer. He swung a little too hard on the window, though, and almost fell out of the bus and onto the street.
"What's the matter? Don't you like it here, Jim?" Ulrich teased as he and Clementine held up their teacher, although, given the situation, it fell flat.
"Oh no, we're gonna crash!" cried Sissi as the complex came closer into view.
"It's all over for us. It's too late!" wailed Ulrich as the bus sped through the security gates, passing through large structures… and straight to a giant steel tank.
Clementine squeezed her eyes shut, hunkered down on the ground. C'mon, c'mon! But the explosion never came; the bus had stopped just inches from the tank.
It was now the morning before Sissi had blackmailed Ulrich into being her boyfriend Clementine could hear Ulrich ask Sissi, "Were you waiting for me? Looking for something?" After a pause she could hear the sound of footsteps fading away. Satisfied, Ulrich opened the door to his dorm and held up the diary in the air. Jeremie clapped as Odd and Clementine cheered for him.
"Yes!"