Chapter 6 : Suspicion

Crazy Computer's Vendetta : Hee hee, are you sure about that? :D… xD Thanks for reviewing.
DelaneyRose : Aha, thanks for reviewing 3 Makes me feel better. xD

Ooookay! So in this chapter are a few more hints. But after this I'll be going back to the regular routine and the twist won't come until later on. :] Oh and Aelita's outfit is somewhat my style. LOL I don't wear skirts often though.


The next day…

Aelita stepped into the girl's bathroom to do the daily routine. Take a shower, brush her teeth… you know those kinds of things. She threw her towel over the shower door and turned the water on to hot.

So, what shall we do today? Aelita thought as she scrubbed her hair with shampoo.

Should we take a walk somewhere? Yeah, right. What would we talk about then?

Should we go to an amusement park? That would be totally unexpected, and he's not the kind to go for them anyways.

Should we go to the ... ridiculous idea. Aelita sighed. She let her hair soak in the shampoo and leaned against the cold, shower wall.

What is there to do? Aelita thought for a second, staring at the droplets of water coming down on her feet.

After today, I'll have to start lessons again. I doubt he's even trying though. She walked under the water and rinsed her hair off, and then massaged in the conditioner.

Perhaps I can just start teaching him today? But I already said we'd be going somewhere… She struggled to find something to do today. In a few hours he would be awake, but Aelita was an early riser, plenty of time to think of something. She rinsed her hair off of any excess conditioner and cleaned her body.

Then she heard the sound of footsteps.

Aelita turned off the water and wrapped the towel around herself. As she stepped out she was greeted by a familiar voice.

"Oh, hey there Aelita." It said.

"Oh, hello Yumi." Aelita smiled. "You wake up early as well?"

"Not really, I just couldn't get that much sleep last night…" Yumi frowned. "I guess I'll be falling asleep in class again today."

Aelita chuckled along with Yumi, but Aelita was surprised that Yumi was still talking to her. It was kind of awkward for Aelita was still holding her towel in place.

"So, I heard from a little someone that you went somewhere with Odd yesterday?" Yumi asked with a blank expression.

"Ahh, well kind of, I didn't go with him, he ended up finding me." Aelita replied.
"I see."

"I'm supposed to be going somewhere with him today as well…" Aelita said, trailing off at the end.

"Hey, why don't you come along too, Yumi?" Aelita asked, tilting her head a bit.

Yumi was taken aback. "Me? Oh, no thanks, I don't want to ruin anything—"

"Oh no, no, no, we're not dating, of course not." Aelita immediately cut her off.

"I simply showed him to be a bit more… gentleman-like?" Aelita showed an innocent smile.

Yumi giggled at the thought of a nice, polite, caring Odd. "I guess Odd really needs to be more gentleman-ish."

Aelita smiled but went back on topic for she was desperately trying to find a way to do anything.

"Yes, anyways, you should come, along with Ulrich." Aelita grinned.

Yumi cocked her eyebrow. "Alright… alright, I'll go, good think Ulrich wakes up earlier than Odd, I'll send him a text before he wakes up."

"Meet up near the lunchroom at 12:30?" Aelita asked, though it wasn't a question.
"Sure thing." Yumi replied with a smile.

They both nodded heads and went off. Aelita quickly shuffled over to her room and dried her hair off. Her clothes were already laid down on her bed neatly. The entire outfit was made up of clothes that she had bought yesterday (the ones she had made Odd carry all the way back to Kadic). They still had the tags on them, so Aelita went over to her desk and took a pair of scissors and carefully snipped them off.

The outfit was made up of a plain light-pink t-shirt, a yellow button-up sweater, a black and white ruffled skirt, black knee-highs, and her shoes were pink Converse. She also had a pink flower hair-clip that she planned on wearing, along with two grey bangles she had bought the other day. She also had a small black purse that she'd bought as well.

Her appearance was complete, and it didn't look that bad either. Aelita smiled as she clipped in her pink hair-clip. Aelita stood in front of her mirror and examined herself. When she was happy with the way she looked she sat down on her bed.

"So.. what really are we going to do today."

"What group activities do people do together?" Aelita asked herself, staring at her feet with her lips pursed.

"We're not really… friends." Aelita said in a sad tone. "So I think we'd be kind of awkward together."

"Well, that rules out fun and games doesn't it." Aelita groaned and fell down to her back, lying on her bed. She stayed quiet for a while when she yawned and got up to turn on her stereo.

"I suppose we can go out somewhere to eat?" Aelita shrugged her shoulders and mentally slapped herself for such a lame idea, she wanted to do something so that Odd could prove himself but she guessed that wasn't possible today.

"Ugh…" Ulrich rolled around in bed crazily. "Stop… stop snoring…" Ulrich said to Odd but of course, he didn't hear at all. He turned over and put his pillow over his head, though it was futile. His cell phone vibrated (he kept his cell phone under his pillow) and he picked it up with his free hand.

"Yumi?" Ulrich said out loud while looking at his cellphone.

hey want to do something today?

great!

meet you outside the cafeteria at 12:30 :)

-Yumi

"We're going somewhere again today?" Ulrich asked surprised, but he wasn't complaining.

He put the pillow back in its place and stood up, he stretched and yawned. "Well I guess I should go get ready then." He stared at Odd with a defiant look, but walked outside the room quietly.

With nothing to do, Aelita went straight to the steps of the lunchroom. She sat down and stretched her legs out, and then propped her head on her hands.

"At least today I'll be able to get to know his friends better."

"Oh… I forgot to invite Jeremie, but he's probably going to reject the offer and go back to work on his laptop." Aelita said to herself half amused. The only times she's seen Jeremie was when he was on his laptop anyways.

It was a good idea that Aelita wore her sweater today, it was awfully chilly. Aelita huddled up and put her knees to her chest. That was when Aelita's eyes grew wide. Her body began to shake and her voice began to tremble.

"Th-this…" Aelita was now shivering and shaking furiously and she closed her eyes tightly.

"Th- the w-w-wind, th-that day-y… n-no…" Aelita buried her face in her knees.

The wind silently rolled past her, and the clouds covered the sky. Aelita was familiar to this kind of weather, perhaps too familiar.

"Y-you mustn't th-think l-like that-t A-Aelita." Aelita whispered to herself.

"N-no…." Aelita tightened her grip around her knees and forced herself to stop shivering.

Aelita looked up at the sky with dull, expressionless eyes. "You must be optimistic, always be optimistic."

"Always… optimistic…"

A good amount of time passed and Aelita was still sitting there.

Yumi yawned and greeted Aelita with a friendly wave.

"Hey, Aelita!" Yumi grinned and walked towards her.

"Hello there Yumi." Aelita gave a gentle smile.

"I already told Ulrich to come, but who knows when Odd would be coming?" Yumi asked as she sat down beside Aelita on the steps.

"What are we doing today?" Yumi asked, a bit excitedly. "I don't know… maybe we could go eat somewhere?"

"Fine by me." Yumi replied.

Aelita turned her face to the right to look at Yumi, who was looking at the forest that was fenced off from the rest of the school.

"How are you and Ulrich?"

"How did you know that we..." Yumi asked Aelita with a confused face.

"I just know." Aelita said, she didn't smile or anything, but looked to the leaves of trees that were rustling in the wind. Yumi looked at Aelita feeling a bit bad for her, but she didn't know why, maybe her monotonous tone got to her.

Yumi's eyes locked on a leaf that was gently falling to the ground. "Mmm..." As the leaf touched the ground, it was once again swept away by the wind, and Yumi followed it like watching a fly zoom across a room. She dropped her gaze when the leaf flew by a familiar figure.

"Oh."

"Ulrich! Over here!" Yumi yelled out, motioning him towards her and Aelita. Aelita looked up and stared at Ulrich, but then put her head on her knees. She sighed as she paid no attention to Yumi and Ulrich's conversation.

"Hey Yumi, and uhh, Aelita." Ulrich said in an awkward tone. Yumi smiled and looked at Aelita, who had a lethargic expression put on her face. A brief, silent moment passed as Ulrich and Yumi both awaited an answer, but they never got one.

"Eheh..." Ulrich broke the silence with a weird chuckle. "So, uh... you wanted to meet here, Yumi?" Ulrich asked, running his hand through his hair. "That's right." Yumi smiled. "Aelita asked me if we wanted to come along with her and Odd to eat somewhere."

"Odd? He's coming along too?" Ulrich asked surprised. Yumi didn't reply, she only turned her eyes towards Aelita who looked like she was fast asleep with her eyes closed. "But don't get the wrong idea." Yumi said with a blank face. Ulrich simply nodded and looked around.

"Well... Odd should be up around... 15 more minutes?" Ulrich asked, trying to recall Odd's routine.

"Great, we're leaving at 1 then." Aelita said, looking at Ulrich. Yumi and Ulrich were surprised but both nodded their heads slowly.

Aelita took out her cellphone and started to write a message.

Outside lunchroom.
I'll be waiting.

Aelilta looked at the message, trying to make sure that it didn't sound weird or anything, and pressed Send.

"Ugh!" Odd groaned as he let his arm droop down over the side of his bed. He turned his head over to look for Ulrich, but once again he was gone.

"Again? They might as well get a room to their selves." Odd smirked, and went to the bathroom to freshen up a bit.

When Odd came back, he got into a simple, nothing-special, outfit. Dark Denim Jeans, a purple t-shirt, and a black jacket. He popped a lollipop into his mouth and smirked as he checked his cell phone.

"She can't stay away from me." Odd said to himself as he walked down the hallway.

She wants me! Is what Odd thought as he walked down the stairs.

I knew it. Is what Odd thought as he made his way to the door.

They all do. Is what Odd thought as he saw Aelita looking gloomy on the steps of the cafeteria.

"There he is." Ulrich said looking over his shoulder to see Odd.

Aelita's ears perked up and she immediately looked at him.

Yumi stood up. "Hey there Odd." Yumi smiled sweetly and greeted him. "What's up." He replied back, raising his eyebrow. "Hey there, Ulrich." He smirked, recalling yesterday at the pool.

"Hey." Ulrich mumbled, also remembering the other day.

Aelita looked at the three quietly, and didn't say a word. Odd didn't pay attention to Aelita, though you couldn't really see her because she was still down on the steps covered by Yumi's and Ulrich's silhouettes.

"So, shall we be going?" Yumi asked to Ulrich and Odd, almost oblivious to Aelita's presence.

"Yeah, let's go."

As the three began to walk Aelita slowly followed behind, she looked somewhat depressed. She walked along with their shadows and kept looking down, clutching her small bag. Yumi and Ulrich of course were talking to each other, with Odd occasionally joining in with a chuckle.

She bit her lip and continued to walk. Odd looked over his shoulder and noticed Aelita's dull, blank eyes. Since his arrival, Aelita had said nothing and they never exchanged glances neither words. He turned around and walked in her direction and stopped right in front of her. When she saw his shoes she stopped walking to avoid bumping into him, she wasn't paying much attention. Though she still kept her head low and avoided his gaze.

He gingerly lifted up her chin and forced her to look up at him. "Something wrong now?" He asked softly. Aelita said nothing but shook her head slowly, with his fingers still on her chin. He tightened his grip on her chin, causing her mouth to slightly open. "If you need anything." He leaned in some more until his lips were close to her ears. "I'm here." He let go and took a step back and smirked. Odd turned on his heel and began to walk towards to Yumi and Ulrich who didn't even realize Odd was not by their side.

As he regained his spot next to them, Odd looked over his shoulder to see Aelita was not with them, but still faraway in the same spot he had stopped her.

They were about a street apart, them three being on the left side and Aelita across the street on the right. She looked down to her feet and stopped at the intersection. She pressed the button to cross and raised her head to see Odd looking back at her from across the street.

"NO!" Aelita yelled, reaching her hand out in his direction. The echo rang through the streets, startling many drivers. The honks from the cars all stopped, and the drivers all looked on and stared at Aelita. Pedestrians stopped their pace and looked as well. Yumi and Ulrich turned around to see Odd a few feet away from them.

Aelita stood there, panicked, with her hand still reaching out. Sweat rolled down her forehead and she began to tremble once again.

Odd stood dumbstruck at Aelita's sudden outburst.

Aelita regained her posture and looked down to her feet once again. With all cars stopped, she quietly crossed the street, and the noisy, bustling life came back as her foot left the gravel and stepped onto the sidewalk.

"What just happened?" Yumi whispered to Ulrich, who couldn't reply as he watched Aelita silently pass them. As he was going to answer he saw Odd walking by at a fast pace.

Aelita was held back by two arms. Holding onto her firmly, Odd stared at her. "What's wrong with you?" He asked in a superior tone. She shook him off and turned around to him with a smiling face. "I'm fine, really." He squinted his eyes but let go. "Now let's hurry, I have a reservation for four and I don't want to lose our table to someone else." Aelita said.

Continuing along, the three shrugged off what had just happened and continued to talk to themselves happily. When they arrived, Aelita pushed open the door to a small restaurant and were seated at a small table near a window.

Aelita joined in some conversations, returning to her normal self. Aelita got to know about them a little bit more and she genuinely felt like she were talking to one of her friends back at her old school.

But they didn't know.

After they finished eating, they stood outside the entrance and Yumi and Ulrich said that they would be going their separate ways for they wanted to go some other place together. Aelita and Odd looked at each other at the corner of their eyes and chuckled.

"What are you laughing at?!" Yumi asked.

"Nothing." Aelita said in an innocent tone.

"Nothing at all Yumes." Odd said.

"Whatever..." Yumi muttered as she turned to walk away with Ulrich.

It was turning dark outside, the whole town covered by an eerie blue-ish black-ish toned canopy.

"I guess we should head back." Aelita said quietly. The street was empty and the sign that had previously read "Open" was now flickering "Closed".

"Are you sure you're okay?" Odd asked, and for a second there Aelita thought he sounded genuinely concerned.

"Positive." Aelita reassured him.

Silence passed and the two felt a chill.

"So much for chivalry." Aelita sighed. "Maybe some other time."

"Some other time, eh?" Odd asked, with an amused faced.

"Ladies first." Odd smirked, putting his hands in front of him.

"Oh, whatever." Aelita laughed as she walked ahead in front of him.