On Monday morning it rained mercilessly. The sun shone, however, and the sunshine made beautiful shadows and shades mixed with the misty downpour and thick clouds.
Odd was just as gloomy as the weather. He had never really realized his feelings for Aelita until yesterday. He wanted to hold her, to tell her how much he loved her. His wondrous angel was gone, and his broken heart ached with the sting of loneliness.
His friends, although worried, were cheerier than him and went about their day with a neutral attitude.
There was yet another problem, and the team - minus Yumi, who was trapped in music class - met with this problem under the vicious rule of Suzanne Hertz.
Chemistry class was starting. As the students took their seats and gathered their notes, Mrs. Hertz picked up the list of students. When the students were in order, she called out their names one by one. "Sorya Abulabbas."
"Here."
"Thomas Jovilet."
"I'm here, ma'am."
"Aelita Stones."
For obvious reasons, Aelita didn't answer. With a firmer tone, Mrs. Hertz repeated, "Aelita Stones."
Still no answer.
Irritated, Mrs. Hertz set down the list and looked directly at Ulrich. "Excuse me, Mr. Stern, where is your pink friend?"
"She's, uh, on vacation," Ulrich stammered, searching for a defense. "Sorry it was on such short notice. Julie Vigoroux, she was gonna tell you, but she got distracted - you know what happened to Julie's uncle."
"Yes, yes, I heard about that. Quite an ill-fated tragedy. Well, Ulrich, I'll let Miss Stones slide. How long will she be gone?"
"Uh...three days at the most."
There was a brief pause. Accepting Aelita's imaginary vacation as true, Mrs. Hertz said, "Fine, well enough," and picked up the list of students, calling them out.
Ulrich gave his two buddies a thumbs-up. He was thankful he was able to buy some time. That solved one tight spot, but unfortunately his fast thinking couldn't bring Aelita out of the core of Lyoko.
- - -
"With a little luck and elbow grease, Aelita will be out of there around the end of her imaginary vacation," Jeremie said at lunch after class.
Yumi joined her hands and remarked, "I hope your work is going somewhere."
"Slowly. And speaking of work, I'd better get things running in my room." He set down his tray and stood up.
Yumi left her tray as well and also stood up. "Why don't I come with you? I'm no genius, but I'll learn a lot from you, I'm sure." She followed him out of the cafeteria.
"They better stay off each other," Ulrich said to no one in particular once they were out of earshot.
"Oh, has your precious Yumi abandoned you for your best friend?" teased a shrill voice. Instead of practicing her ritual of stopping to chat and taunt Ulrich, Sissi just passed his table, laughing.
She didn't know it, but her words went - ironically enough - straight to heart.
- - -
"...this program will also find Franz Hopper. I think. I'm not sure, I haven't done enough testing." Jeremie glanced up at Yumi to check if she grasped anything he was saying. And she didn't. Yumi had never understood the vast world of computers which stretched out beyond time and space. It was dizzying.
Besides, now that she had a chance to be alone with Jeremie, time and space weren't exactly on Yumi's mind today. She gazed at him as he talked about Lyoko's technological consistency. He was so wonderful; polite and gentle, dazzlingly smart, and extremely cute.
Yumi tried her very best to hide her secret love for Jeremie. It had started ever since that summer vacation, when she decided Ulrich shouldn't stick so close to her. She remembered what she said in their post-vacation conversation. "I've been thinking. We're going around in circles. One day I'm jealous, the next day it's you..." But she couldn't bear being in a close relationship with both of them. Not that there was anything going on between Yumi and Jeremie. Well, not at the moment.
He seemed to notice her staring at him. "Is everything okay, Yumi?"
Everything's okay when I'm with you, she thought, but said aloud, "I don't know."
"Trouble with Ulrich, maybe?"
"I guess you could say that. Jeremie, I've been having second thoughts about Ulrich...he's...he's not the one I love. There's someone else." This is it. I'm going to tell him.
"Is it William?"
Yumi was about to say no, but just then the computer beeped. Red grids of two towers appeared.
"Oh no, two activated towers!" Jeremie gasped.
Yumi frowned at the computer. First the anniversary, now this. Thanks again, Xana. Is there any other way you'd like to ruin my life?
Apparently, there was another way. A black cloud of smoke seeped out of an electrical outlet, and slowly engulfed Yumi.
- - -
Ulrich sat at the lunch table, poking at his Brussels sprouts. Somehow, they were less than irresistible this afternoon, probably because Sissi soured them.
Unexpectedly his cell phone rang. "What's going on?" he answered.
"Get Odd and go to the factory. There's two activated towers. Yumi's being controlled by Xana, and she's attacking me!"
"Who's gonna operate the supercomputer?"
"Either you or Odd. I'll try to follow you later, if I can distract Yumi."
"But Jeremie, how do we deactivate the towers without Aelita?" That was up to Ulrich; there was a static buzzing noise on the other line, then an ending click.
"Xana emergency?" Odd asked, standing up.
Other than a sigh, Ulrich made no response. He didn't need to.
- - -
- - -
More trouble for our heroes! Stay tuned!