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3

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Sissi fidgeted with her shoulderbag nervously. She'd seen Aelita's text message that morning and had rushed through getting cleaned up and dressed. She'd been so focused on getting there on time that she'd actually arrived almost an hour early, and had now been sitting on the bench that sat along the park trail for most of that time.

Aelita's text had said to wear functional attire and bring some kind of transportation. Sissi had been a little confused by that, but she'd left behind her usual heart-shirt-skirt-and-heels combo for jeans and a pink midriff-baring shirt and sneakers. Her yellow hairband kept her hair back as usual, but she'd forgone the usual gold hoop earrings just in case "functional attire" meant not to have dangly bits around.

In the same vein, she'd left her purse behind and brought a sturdy shoulder bag emptied of schoolbooks and notepads and filled instead with whatever she could think of as useful in different situations. It occurred to her that she was probably being silly and overthinking things, but between Odd's reactions the day before, Aelita's text, and her own nervous musings over time, something told her it was better to be safe than sorry.

Sissi checked her small black watch again; it was eleven fifty-nine. She hadn't seen anyone come by yet; students usually didn't use the nature trail except on class days, and even then most preferred to be indoors on computers or with friends. Most likely at this time on a Sunday, most of the other school kids would be asleep.

She pulled her legs up to her chest and rocked back on the bench, tilting her head back to look up at the trees and letting her thoughts roam again. That morning after getting the text, she'd been so excited and eager to find out what was going on. Now she felt an enormous wave of nervousness, like something huge was about to happen. Why, she couldn't figure out. But the feeling remained.

"Lizzy!"

Sissi turned her head at the voice; Aelita was coming up the path from school, wearing her usual casual dress and boots.

Sissi put her feet back down and smiled as the girl came up to the bench. "Morning, Ann."

Both girls giggled; the nicknames were plays on the online handles they'd known each other by for months before really getting acquainted in real life.

Aelita motioned to the bench. "Is it alright if I sit down?"

"Yeah, of course! You're the one who messaged me, after all."

Aelita sat down, smoothing out her dress and looking Sissi's outfit over. There was a short silence, and Sissi noticed a somewhat odd look on Aelita's face. "W-What is it? Are the clothes not right for whatever this is?"

Aelita quickly shook her head. "No, they're perfectly fine! Just a little ironic I suppose in a way." It's the outfit she wore the last time she found out, save for the headband…ironic indeed.

Sissi tilted her head. "I don't understand."

"You will, eventually."

They sat in silence for another minute. Sissi checked her watch again, fidgeting. Aelita looked to her, seeming to study her.

"Odd made quite the strong case to us last night, you know." She finally said. "I know I said it when we went shopping last week, but I'm still amazed how devoted he is to making you happy."

Sissi blushed, looking away a bit. "I was as shocked as anyone. Both about him caring about me, and about me caring about him…" She gave a small ironic laugh. "If you'd try to tell me a couple months ago that I'd have ended up with that bozo, I'd have thought you came from another planet."

Aelita smiled. "I'm happy it's worked out for you both so far. It's nice to see him so happy."

"Admittedly, I kind of thought you might be a little jealous. I guess it'd sound silly now, but for a while I'd almost pegged you and him as a possible thing."

"Oh goodness no! Odd's like a brother to me, I'd never be able to see that. Besides…" Aelita trailed off briefly, before looking into the distance and finishing firmly, "Jeremie will always be the only one for me."

Sissi looked to her, watching Aelita's face, feeling the strength of the statement, and again she wondered what it was that had happened between Jeremie and Aelita to cause such devotion to each other, though especially from her. It was rather like a princess who had wholly devoted herself to her knight in shining armor; a mental image that didn't seem to fit the skinny, nerdy Jeremie Belpois at all.

Aelita looked away down the path again. "Here come the others." She stood up, and Sissi stood as well; indeed, Jeremie was coming, followed by Ulrich and Odd.

Odd moved close to Sissi as they arrived, pulling her into a warm hug and a brief but warm kiss, before moving to stand next to her. "Thank you for coming, Sissi." She nodded in return, the nervousness starting to return.

Aelita looked to Jeremie. "Where's Yumi?"

Ulrich answered. "She's meeting us there; it's quicker from her place."

Her place? Sissi wondered. "A-Are we going somewhere?"

"Yeah, we are." Odd answered. He nodded to the others and they set off as a group, moving away from the bench and off the nature trail entirely. They moved through the trees, and soon they were deep into the occasionally thick woods of the forest. Sissi kept pace with the others, astounded at the way that they seemed to know the place so well; Jeremie, Ulrich, Odd, and even Aelita never slowed as they moved in and out of the trees and brush, not seeming to follow any visible trail. She found herself grateful she'd worn the outfit she had, as her short skirt and heels would not have agreed with this kind of travel at all; somehow Aelita's dress seemed completely unaffected by the growth.

Eventually the group came to a small clearing. In the middle of it was a small stone rise with a sewer manhole cover set into it. Ulrich climbed on and began to twist the manhole cover off, and Sissi hesitated slightly.

"We're going into the sewers?" Her brain started reminding her that such places usually stank something fierce and weren't very healthy at all.

Odd replied to her question. "It's an old water main actually. There's still water running through it, but no sewage in this part." He grinned. "So don't worry, you won't smell like poo afterwards."

Sissi gave him a look and a small shove in response, as Ulrich got the manhole cover off and put it aside. Jeremie climbed up and crouched down, sliding into the hole; Aelita soon followed him, and then Ulrich. Odd brought Sissi up to the open entrance; she now saw that there was a metal ladder leading down.

Odd motioned. "Ladies first."

"R-Right…" Sissi took a deep breath and steeled herself, then crouched down and stepped onto the ladder, starting down. It was long, and the rungs were round and smooth, so she had to take care descending. Above her, Odd started down, pulling the manhole cover over the top.

For a moment they were in almost complete darkness, before descending into a well-lit and enormous cylindrical pipe. Sissi gasped, not having quite expected the size of it; the tunnel was enormous, with stone paths running along both sides of a wide waterway, which flowed gently but with great volume. As she reached the bottom, she saw the others waiting by a line of wheeled vehicles leaning against a wall of the tunnel; Aelita and Jeremie were each unfolding standup scooters, while Ulrich picked up a skateboard. As Odd hit the bottom of the ladder, he grabbed the other skateboard waiting.

Aelita looked to Sissi. "Did you bring something for moving with like I said?"

"Huh? Oh, y-yeah." Sissi pulled her gaze away from the enormous tunnel to dig through her shoulder bag, pulling out a set of rollerblades and swapping them for her sneakers. Odd steadied her as she donned them and stowed the sneakers away. "Okay, I'm all set here."

Ulrich nodded, then turned and abruptly threw his skateboard onto the ground and leapt on, suddenly rocketing away at speed along the stone path. Odd grinned and ran after him, shouting. "Hey, wait up!" He threw his own board down and zoomed off similarly.

Jeremie shook his head and started off after them on his scooter, trying to keep up. Aelita simply sighed. "Boys." She looked back at Sissi. "Follow us." Then she set off too at surprising speed on her own scooter.

Sissi took a moment to get used to her blades again, before following the group as best she could. Ulrich and Odd were already far ahead, though Jeremie and Aelita occasionally slowed just enough to check on her, and soon she was keeping pace with the two on her rollerblades. The stone path and waterway sped by, curving here and there.

After a minute, Aelita called out to her over the rushing wind and wheels. "Stairs coming up!" Sissi gave her a surprised look and slowed up a bit, looking ahead; indeed, Ulrich had just popped his board up over a railing ahead, with Odd grinding the railing right after him. Soon Jeremie had reached it; suddenly he had jumped his scooter up and was grinding down the railing and out of sight. Next went Aelita, almost precisely mirroring Jeremie's move; Sissi was stunned either one of them could do it, and the fact that all four had done the move like pros with years of practice threw her off briefly.

Okay then, if I need to keep up with them…let's try it! Sissi quickly picked up speed, heading straight for the railing, and at the last second she leapt and turned her feet sideways, starting to grind down the railing on the rollerblades. She almost cheered, but abruptly one of the wheels caught a bump somewhere in the railing and without warning she was pitched forward sharply with a yelp.

On pure instinct, her hands landed palms-out on the railing and she stiffened her arms, planting them as her feet went over her head, before pushing off again; another second later and she was upright and her wheels had landed hard on the pavement, making her skid shakily and unsteadily, flailing her arms as she started to topple forward. Before she could fall though, strong arms reached out and steadied her; the others had held back and Odd had his arms around her, spinning them both around once on the spot to let her momentum carry out as he brought her to a stop.

"Holy crap, Sissi, I didn't know you could do that! That was awesome!" He looked for all the world like a kid who had just watched the Olympics for the first time. Jeremie, Ulrich, and Aelita looked just as surprised.

"I didn't know I could do that!" Sissi responded breathlessly, still processing what had happened. "I mean, I took some gymnastics when I was younger, but I haven't done anything like that since seventh grade!" She looked back at the railing, feeling a surge of pride rush through her. Oh yeah! I can totally keep up with these guys, whatever we're headed into!

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