First Day of School

Note: here is where another's point of view is introduced. You may recognize the hearkening to the Code: Lyoko episode The Pretender. The other chapters will correspond somehow until I hit and clear Final Round.

Karen

The white dragon flew to a large mountain that was the school. The dragon was led to a large bronze dragon, flamed at by a green-gold dragon, and shown into a cave by a large brown dragon. She stood next to a large dark gold dragon, looking out at a motley assembly of other dragons of all colors (brown, bronze, blue, gold, green). All of those other dragons didn't look extremely friendly, but what else was there to expect? After that class, the white dragon flew out and around the large mountain that was the school with a pinkish-gold dragon which led her to a bronze dragon with extraordinary muscle, a bronze dragon that was thinner than the other, but with a kinder face and unusual rings around his eyes, and a small brown dragon with a strangely shaded patch on his head –

Large black birds! Flying down to attack the white dragon, as well as a smaller dark gold dragon and the boy dragons she had met –

The white dragon flew on with the pinkish-gold towards the sleeping caverns, with no botheration.

I opened my eyes with a start. Now, that was a strange dream, if I ever had one. One minute, "I" was flying around outside the "school," the next minute, giant birds were assaulting "me" – and both moments were extremely real.

I pulled on my clothes, brushed my hair, and went out of my room. Then I ran back in – I had forgotten my stuff.

"Okay, Karen. Beginning of a new day, take two," I laughed to myself as I walked out the door again. I hate it when I do that: forget something and have to go back to get it, then walk out the door again. Sometimes I have to exit a room three times, can you believe it?

Mom was waiting for me at the door. She tossed me a bag and said, "It's a good idea to just get you there early."

"Whatever happened to saying good morning?" I couldn't resist that one; I was feeling nervous.

Mom laughed. "Good morning, Karen."

We went out and got in the car, to drive off to school. I was predicting very uncomfortable encounters with the students.
We stopped outside the school, and Mom showed me in to the principal, Mr. Delmas. He didn't look overly friendly, but hopefully, I wouldn't have to cross paths with him more than once.

Mom left, and I was using my own devices to get to my first class. I decided that the best thing to do is find my roommate. Wait – roommate? Having to dorm was bad enough, but roommate? Oh, well. I looked at the paper that Mr. Delmas had given me. There was a number on it, and a name: Aelita Stones. I didn't even look at the number, since I figured all I needed to do was find this girl. Aelita was a very pretty name, though what kind of a last name was "Stones"? I kept walking – I'll admit I was lost in thought – and nearly ran into a girl with black hair.

"Watch it!" That woke me up. This girl didn't sound at all friendly. She must be that green-gold.

"Um, I'm sorry. Uh…wait," for she was starting to walk away. She turned around again, with a very sour look on her face. I hesitated for a minute, then decided to ask anyway: "Do you…know a girl named…Aelita Stones?"

She laughed and told me, kind of nastily, "Even if I didn't know her, she can't be missed: just look for a girl with pink hair! And don't ask me for help again!" Then she stormed off.

Yeah. Harsh words are always shown in my dreams as either smoke or flames, depending on the way they're said. Hold on: pink hair? Who in the world had pink hair? Wait…there was a gold dragon in my dream, a dragon my white spent most of the dream with, who had a kind of strange hue: sort of pinkish-gold. Her first appearance was in my first classroom. Okay, where was my first –

"What are you doing out here?" I jumped. That was loud! When I turned around, there was a big man standing there, looking at me.

"Um…nothing. I was just, uh, trying to find my first class. A…Mrs. Hertz class?"

His expression got gentler. Kinda. "Oh, is that all? I'll show you where that is. You new here?"

At my nod, he continued, "Well, you know you can't be escorted all around the school all the time. You'd better learn where your classes are quickly. Here you are." Then he walked away, leaving me to stand there alone by the door. I took a deep breath and walked in.

Aelita

I was sitting in Mrs. Hertz's class when I noticed a girl with white hair walk in. Mrs. Hertz noticed her, too. "Oh, there you are." She stood up and brought the girl to the front of the classroom. "Class, this is Karen Shayli. She has just transferred here, so I trust you will all make her feel welcome?"

Karen looked very shy up there all by herself, shy and scared. The only empty seat was next to me, so I stood and pulled it out for her. She did see that: she dashed over as though that chair was a refuge from the world.

"Hello. I know what it's like to be in a new place." I wasn't sure that was exactly the right thing to say to her, but I was trying to make her feel better.

Karen glanced at me and smiled. Then she said, so quietly that I know I was the only person who heard her, "Are you Aelita?" When I nodded, she added, "I'm your…new roommate."

Well. That was something I wasn't expecting to hear. I wasn't sure I liked the arrangement at first; what if she somehow interfered with fighting against X.A.N.A.? Or worse: tried to find out about our secret? Then I took another look at her. She didn't look like the kind of person who would interfere with anything, and she certainly wouldn't try to find out about a secret. And who knew? I might just tell her about Lyoko.

"Okay. I'll show you where our room is, then I'll show you around the school and introduce you to my friends."

On mentioning my friends, I noticed her shrink back a little, as if she was scared. Then she sighed and nodded with a little smile.

I showed her all around the school, and I did get to introduce her to Ulrich, Odd and Jeremie. I told Odd to go easy on her, since she was obviously scared of something. Then the unthinkable happened: a X.A.N.A. attack! He had possessed a whole flock of crows, and they were attacking students, especially us, with electrified beaks! For some reason, though, Karen didn't look that scared. In fact, she almost looked like she was expecting it!

"Karen, I want you to go find Yumi. She's tall and always wears black. Tell her to come to the factory as soon as she can."

One thing about Karen, she does things without asking questions. She nodded and ran off, almost acting like she was flying. I would have to ask her about that. I ran to the factory to do my part.

I ran with Ulrich as the desert sector disappeared behind me, and then Jeremie managed to devirtualize us – finally!

I heard Jeremie say, "Return to the past now!" And I wondered when I would be appearing.

Karen

I touched my head. I had never felt so strange before. Well, okay…I had felt like that on several occasions, but never like this!

Aelita asked, "Are you okay, Karen?" She really did sound like she was concerned.

I answered, "I'm okay. I'll be okay." I knew that that answer didn't match up very well, but I couldn't exactly tell her what was really going on. I noticed, though, that she didn't seem to believe me. Happily for me, she let it slide.

As we returned to our room, I wondered what the giant black birds were about in my dream this morning. Nothing like that had happened today, though it was fun identifying the muscular bronze with Ulrich, the ring-eyed bronze with Jeremie, and the funky-headed brown with Odd. I'm still wondering: what kind of a name is Odd? I got ready for bed, but I wasn't ready to sleep yet. So, I took one of my pictures out of my bag and taped it up on the wall.

"That's very pretty, Karen." I jumped; I had forgotten that Aelita was there. "I'm sorry," she added, sounding embarrassed. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's okay," I said hastily, "I'm always jumpy like that. Yeah, I know," I swapped subjects, "I'm only really good at drawing dragons, though. They just…fly through my dreams somehow." Oh Karen, you had better be more careful in choosing your words…that was so close to spilling the beans.

"I see. I used to have strange dreams too." Aelita looked like she was trying to understand and failing.

I smiled. "Actually, I like to dream about dragons. They're so…majestic when they fly, and they are so brave…unlike me," I added sheepishly. I was sounding dragon-crazy or something.

Aelita smiled back and told me, "You're braver than you know, Karen. Good-night." Then she lay down to sleep.

I stared at her. "Braver than I know?" I repeated quietly. Was I really? Even if that wasn't true, I decided that I liked Aelita. Sure, her last name was kind of strange, but she was quite nice, not like that other girl Sissi. I decided that someday, sooner or later, I would tell Aelita about my dreams, and how they told me what the day would be like.