Well, here's chapter two. It's better than chapter one was, I can assure that much. As to it being good, or not, I can't say for a fact. I'll let you all decide that.

The following story contains course language, and some content that is not meant for young readers.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Code Lyoko. And I'm damn glad that I don't, too, because I would probably ruin it with my lack of creativity.

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Chapter 2: Nice Going

It was late in the evening, about 10:12PM. The students in the dorm rooms of Kadic academy were either getting ready for bed, or getting ready to sneak out. For Ulrich, it was the latter.

After telling his comedic roommate where he was going, he crept down the hall of the dormitory, feeling quite content with his ninja-like movement. He had managed to make it past eagle-eyed Jim, or so he calls himself. Though, don't ask him about it, because he won't tell you a thing; he'd "rather not talk about it."

Ulrich made his way to the school's gym, planning for an after hours work-out session. He walked through the mysteriously unlocked gym doors, and walked to the very middle of the gym, as he usually did.

After doing a few stretches, he began taking martial arts poses, curving and twisting his body in complicated fashions. While in the midst of this haze of Kung-Fu, his drifting mind, thinking of you-know-who, caused him to ill-perform a particular maneuver; he inadvertently fell.

"Damn it!"

Ulrich wasn't one that usually shouted such expletorial remarks, but this time, he didn't try to prevent its slipping out. After brushing himself off a bit, he began to take a slow pace to his martial arts, to an almost Tai'Chi Chuan like speed. His movements seem to denote heavy meditation and pensiveness, rather than a furious warrior fighting imaginary opponents. With a sigh, he said to himself:

"Why is it so hard to concentrate?"

The sound of the gym doors opening quickly caught his attention.

"What the-- ?"

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Meanwhile, in Jeremie's room, Jeremie was burning the midnight oil on his computer, typing away at an incredibly fast rate, the contents of what he was tryping being complex and esoteric.

He was creating an updated version of his activated tower search program, which he thought was not working well enough. He began yammering mathematical nonsense under his breath, and ceasing from typing every few moments to mentally check his calculations.

Jeremie was a train wreck; He was hungry, tired to the bone, and the guy could have used a shower, too. He shook his head a few times to get the tired out of him, and rubbed his eyes a moment.

"... I can't stop now... I have too much work to do."

Shortly after he began working again, there was a knock at his door. He didn't turn around to see who it was, he simply said:

"Yes, who is it?"

Surprisingly, it was Aelita, whom had snuck out of her room to see how Jeremie was doing. She said:

"It's just me, Jeremie. How's the new program coming?"

Jeremie, still working away at his computer, said:

"It's not a new program, Aelita, it's just an update to my program that scans for activated towers. This update of mine will allow the program to search more thoroughly through Lyoko."

After a moment or so, Aelita retorted, rather hesitantly:

"Oh... I see..."

She then gathered her courage, and asked him a question she had recited in her head many times. It was definitely something important to her:

"Um... Jeremie? I was wondering... Maybe... Could you join me at lunch tomorrow?"

Still typing, he responded:

"Sorry, Aelita. Xana takes no breaks, and neither do I."

As much of a contradiction the statement was, Aelita sensed sincerity in what he said. She felt the passion he exemplified in his devotion to fighting Xana, and eliminating the threat he posed. But, was it just an excuse so that he could shroud himself in a virtual fairy world? Was it just a thrill ride to him? Or was he actually doing it for her? Nontheless, he needed to live a life outside of his computer screen. Aelita pleaded with Jeremie:

"But... Jeremie... What about--"

Jeremie interrupted:

"Like I said, Aelita, I can't. Maybe some other time."

She heaved a lonely sigh, and walked towards the door to leave, but not before saying:

"I guess you did forget..."

With this last remark said, Jeremie stopped typing, and turned around to face Aelita; she had already left. He rubbed his eyes once again, wondering what she could have been talking about. With a groan, he went back to his program.

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In Odd and Ulrich's dorm room, Odd was sitting up in his bed, petting his beloved dog, Kiwi, and listening to some low-volume music. He was mad about a test he had failed earlier that day. Jeremie wasn't letting him copy off of his test papers, so his grades were slipping.

"Ugh. Damn you, Ms.Hertz. Why do you issue such hard tests, anyway?" He angrily said to himself

A moment later, he heard footsteps down the hall, and, what he thought to be, someone crying. The voice of the weeping person sounded familiar.

"Huh?"

He opened his door slightly, and saw that it was someone that he knew: Aelita. She was walking out of Jeremie's room, and down the other end of the hall - her back was facing him. She was talking to herself in the midst of her crying:

"How could he have... forgotten about it?" She asked herself. "It was so important to us, and he forgot..."

The "he" she was referring to must have been Jeremie. It didn't come to Odd right away, but he eventually realized what she must have been upset about. To make sure his assumptions were correct, he checked his calendar.

"No way! It's already been that long?"

Odd recalled the situation in his head: Aelita was crying after leaving Jeremie's room, and then said that he forgot about something. Odd cringed.

"Oh, nice going, Einstein."

The royally pissed off Odd sat back down on his bed, and turned off his music. He sighed, and said:

"Looks like I need to hit the hay early, tonight."

He rolled over, and tried his best to fall asleep.

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Ulrich looked with a grimace at who entered the gymnasium - it was none other than Sissi, herself.

"Hi, Ulrich-dear! Fancy meeting you here!" she said, her voice being so ghastly that she had thereby killed one thousand angels with each utterance.

Ulrich tried his best to ignore her; it was to no avail. She sat down on the bleachers, gazing longfully and irritatingly at him whilst he was practicing; it was getting on his nerves.

"Sissi, why do you have to bother me at this hour? Shouldn't you be asleep?" Asked Ulrich, aggravation evident in his tone.

"I just wanted to be alone with my future husband, Ulrich-dear."

Ulrich sighed, and returned to a standing posture. He began wondering how she even figored out that he was in the gymnasium, but immediately put the "how" out of his mind when he realized a fact he had understood for the longest time: Sissi's stalking techniques knew no equal. The "how" factor was not a problem for her when it came to pissing him off. He tried to set her straight, and send her packing:

"First of all, I'm not your 'future husband,' second of all, leave."

He pointed towards the door as he made the last remark. She got up and approached him.

"Oh, come on, Ulrich. The night is still young."

Ulrich became infuriated as she walked towards him. He shouted:

"Sissi! I said leave!"

She stopped dead in her tracks, perplexed as to why he was so angry. She screamed:

"Why?! Is Yumi coming here to meet you?"

Ulrich's expression change dramatically when she asked him this. He looked towards the ground for a moment, then back at Sissi.

"No. She isn't."

Ulrich placed his hands in his pockets, and walked out of the gym, leaving the confused, and slightly pissed, Sissi by herself. She said out of frustration:

"Oh, damn it! Nice going, Elizabeth!"

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Back at the Ishiyama residence, Yumi and Hiroki's parents were having another fight. It was over money, from what Yumi could understand.

"What is your problem?! It's none of your business what I spend my money on!" Shouted Mr.Ishiyama.

"It's my business when you spend 500 dollars of your pay check on who-knows-what! It affects this family when you're loose with your money, Takeo!" Mrs.Ishiyama loudly retorted.

"What I do with my money isn't the problem, it's your redundant suspiciousness that's driving this family into the fucking hole!" Mr.Ishiyama brutally replied.

Yumi was sitting on her bed. Hiroki was right next to her crying his eyes out. The yellings of their parents could be heard clearly, even though they were upstairs. Yumi tried her best to comfort her young, and scared brother:

"It'll be okay, Hiroki. They'll stop fighting soon, and everything will be okay."

Yumi, herself, felt like crying. But, she had to be strong for Hiroki. She thought to herself: "Damn you, mom and dad! Did you both forget that you have kids?!"

After about 15 minutes, their parents had stopped fighting, or so it seemed. Yumi went downstairs to see how things were, when she saw her dad walking towards the door, carrying a suitcase with him. He looked in the kitchen at his wife, and said:

"Fine. If you want me gone, then I'm leaving."

Mrs.Ishiyama kept quiet; She simply gave him a look of disgust right before he was about to walk out the door. Before he could leave, however, Yumi spoke out, in a pissed off and sad tone:

"Why do things have to be this way?! Can you two not fight for once?!"

Her parents didn't seem affected by her words. Takeo Ishiyama simply "Hmph"ed as he walked out of the door, and Mrs.Ishiyama looked in the other direction, a blatant expression of anger on her face. Yumi was the one who was really angry, though. She punched the wall, and yelled:

"Err! Nice going! Wait to resolve the problem!"

Yumi heaved a deep sigh, and went back to her room. Her brother was asleep on her bed. Deciding not to disturb him, she carefully tucked him in, as to not wake him up, and told him "good night." Yumi gathered an extra quilt and pillow, and slept on the floor in her room. Trying her best to put the fight out of her mind, and seek comfort in somethng, she thought for a moment, and asked herself:

"... I wonder if Ulrich's asleep..."

She reached up on her dresser, picked up her cell phone, and called Ulrich's phone.

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As Ulrich was walking down the hallway to his and Odd's dorm room, he felt the vibration of his cell phone in his pocket. He grabbed his phone, and looked at his caller ID to see from what number he was being called. At first, he thought it might have been Sissi, but he soon found that it was, in fact, Yumi.

"... Yumi?" He said to himself.

Ulrich thought: "What could she be calling for? Could she...?" Ulrich, plagued with his outright hestitative behavior around Yumi, didn't know what to do: Answer, or not answer? The side of himself that was utterly devoted to Yumi ORDERED him to answer the phone, but the cowardice within him that deterred him from even looking at Yumi was what was in control. His phone stopped vibrating, indicating that Yumi had ceased from trying to reach him. As Ulrich walked into the dorm room, the sleeping Odd oblivious to his entry, he angrily threw the cell phone on his bed. Ulrich irritably muttered under his breath:

"Nice going, you coward, what if it was something important?"

Ulrich reached for his cell phone, and began dialing Yumi's cell phone number. He paused right before hitting "send," and after a moment, he turned off his cell phone, dropped it on the ground, and fell back on his bed. He heaved a heavy sigh, and said in soliloquy:

"... Sorry, Yumi..."

Ulrich closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

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Yumi clicked "end" on her cell phone, and placed it beside her. She stared intently at it for what seemed like an eternity before rolling over and closing her eyes.

"... I guess he's not going to call..."

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And there it is... Yeah, sorry about the chapter title associations with each predicament. I thought it fitting, I suppose. (Shrugs) I worked pretty hard on this to make sure it was absolutely perfect, hence why it took over a week to write. But, don't worry, chapter three is in the making, and will be uploaded in a few days. Chapter four will probably come several days after chapter three.

Comment. Compliment. Criticize. Berate. Whatever you do, give me a truthful review. (Hey! I'm a poet, and I didn't know it!)