School Day Alone

Karen

The white dragon flew out, and it went off to its first class with the pink-gold dragon. Then they went together to the lunch room, joining up with the kind bronze and the dark gold. Then –

The pink-gold dragon was gone! She and the spectacled bronze had left right after they gave a fast report. Where could they be? –

The two of them flew back to their cave.

I opened my eyes with a start. Once was bad enough, but did it have to happen twice? At least, this one was relatively easy to understand: Aelita and Jeremie were going to stay near me the whole day, or they wouldn't. Either way, I should plan for both.

I glanced over at Aelita's bed as I got dressed. The girl was already gone. Oh well. I knew where the first class was, anyway.

"Okay, I've gotta prove that I'm not totally helpless in this place." I walked off and got halfway to my first class before I finally found Aelita.

"There you are," she said. "I was wondering how long it would take you to wake up."

"Yeah…I sometimes have a little trouble getting out of Dreamland." Oh, Karen. You have gotta quit walking that close to the truth.

Fortunately, all she did was laugh.

I looked over at Sissi nervously. Why did I have to be partnered with her for the history assignment? Well, I would just have to make the best of the situation, as usual.

I glanced at Jeremie and Aelita, who were on the other side of the room. Those two looked like they were having so much more fun. Well, that made perfect sense. After all, I think I'm seeing some kind of "thing" between those two. Getting to work together had to be like a dream come true for them.

"Are you going to stop daydreaming and help me?" I sighed and returned to reality. Working with Sissi was not going to be pleasant, but what could I do?

Aelita

When Jeremie sounded the alarm, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. I was glad that he already had a plan.

"Odd, Ulrich, get to the factory. Aelita, you and I had better figure out how we're going to finish our report quickly."

The whole time we gave our extremely fast report, I was glancing nervously at Karen. Would she figure out that something was wrong?

Well, she noticed something. But her expression was saying that she was expecting it! I am definitely going to figure out what that was all about.

"May I go to the infirmary, Teacher? I have a headache." Jeremie asked.

Later, I decided.

Jeremie

We got to the factory, and then we discovered that William had followed us. I got him working on finding Yumi and we set to work.

After we devirtualized Aelita, we all cast a vote on whether or not William should join the team.

"Sorry, William," I said after the votes were read. "One no."

I activated a return to the past.

Aelita

It was the previous day, and I was with Karen. I glanced over at her and saw her touch her head with a queer expression on her face.

"Are you okay, Karen?" I just had to ask.

She looked at me and smiled nervously. "Oh, nothing. It's really nothing."

I let it drop. It was just a coincidence that she acted like her head hurt only after a return trip. Right?

I went off to a meeting in Jeremie's room. Odd was needling Ulrich about that no vote.

"Don't look at me," he replied. "I may not like the guy, but he may be useful."

Odd looked confused. "But if you didn't vote no, and I didn't vote no, and Jeremie and Aelita both voted yes, that would mean – "

We all knew exactly who had given that no vote: Yumi!

I decided to ask Jeremie something right now. "Jeremie? Would it be terribly bad if I told someone else about our group? Say…Karen Shayli?"

Odd figured it out. "You mean your new roommate? Why do you want to tell her?"

I threw all the cards down. "Because twice, I've seen her expecting something to happen. And twice, I've seen her act like her head felt strange right after a return trip. Isn't that just a little too coincidental?"

Jeremie thought about that. Einstein would get this one right.

"I say we wait for a third time before telling her anything. Okay, Aelita?" I nodded. Waiting would be just fine. The third time would tell all. Or at least...

Okay, I would wait until the third time her head hurt after a return trip before telling her. That didn't mean I would wait for the next expect-an-attack look before asking about that, though.

Author's Note: Aelita is suspicious! Will Karen tell her about her dreams?