He Who Calls
Chapter 11
"Aelita's birthday is in four days," said Ulrich. "Do we have anything planned?" It was four hours before the dance and everyone except Aelita was meeting in the Factory.
"It is?" asked Milo. "Mine is in two."
"You should've told us!" said Jeremy. "Get out, now we have to plot your party behind your back too."
"Fine," said Milo. "I already know what I'm going to get Aelita. I've got everything I need. Four hours should be enough time to put it together." He walked into the elevator and went back to his room. Classes had been cancelled because of dance preparation, so he had some free time. He started working on his present.
"All right," said Yumi. "What sort of party would they want?"
"I don't know," said Odd. "Bake a cake, get presents, and come up with really good excuses for why they get to skip class those days?"
"We did that for Aelita last year," said Ulrich. "We should get Milo something really good. Aelita started out part of our gang, but he became a functioning Lyoko Warrior by his own choice."
"New bike?" suggested Yumi. "His is about to fall apart, I've seen it."
"He does have a horrible bike, which he hates, but where are we going to get enough money to buy him a new one?"
"Same problem with a new computer, I guess," said Jeremy. "We also have to figure it out soon, because we also have to decide Aelita's party."
"How much money do we actually have?" asked Odd. "I have… Six dollars and twenty-seven cents!"
"I've got forty dollars allowance saved up from when I was nine," said Yumi.
"I have another twenty-five," said Ulrich. "From doing odd jobs. No offence, Odd."
"None taken."
"I have another twenty-five, said Jeremy. "So for both of them we have $96.27. That isn't horrible."
"I say we don't get presents and we throw a huge party!" said Odd.
"I say we don't throw a huge party and get presents," said Ulrich. "Can anyone here even imagine how much Milo would hate it if we threw a huge party for him?" Everyone thought about it. Milo definitely didn't love having huge amounts of people focusing on him. The only reason he had gone to the dance was because Aelita asked him. And even then he might have said no, no matter how much he liked her; except for the fact the attention wouldn't be focused on him.
"Okay, no party for Milo," said Odd. "What about Aelita?"
"The only way she'd be happy is if Milo came," said Ulrich. "He'd come, but he'd hate it. And she'd hate that."
"These two are hard to figure out," said Odd, scratching his head.
"Not if you except the fact they don't like parties."
"That's a hard fact to except. Aelita loves parties!"
"Milo doesn't, and she won't love her party if Milo hates it." They were still arguing about it when Jeremy looked at his watch and said, "Time for the dance!"
Milo looked up. After four hours of work, Aelita's present was complete.