Yumi stood in an open street, shivering and wrapping her blazer more tightly around her as the breeze swept up another sea of Autumn leaves, rolling them along the road in swirls. Where was he? She checked the time on her phone impatiently (watches are so yesterday). Although it had only been 3 minutes, she was already a little fidgety, and less than appreciative of the cold.

"Hey," Odd skipped over cheerfully. "Sorry to keep you waiting."

"No problem," Yumi smiled, as they started off down the lane. It was a windy Sunday morning and the two didn't really know where they were headed, they were just headed somewhere.

"Hey would you mind if we stopped here for a minute? There's a new book I wanted to check out," Yumi pointed to the library they were nearing.

"Oh, yeah. Sure," although it WASN'T Odd's fave place to be, it didn't hurt to make a pit stop. Besides, he'd been meaning to drop by anyways to see if the new issues of some comics had come in.

As they entered, Yumi instinctively started wandering over to the fiction novel area, while Odd roamed more towards the comics, a quick glance telling him that they didn't have the right issues. That, or someone had already taken it out. Either way, Odd couldn't find it and started off to find Yumi, further down in the musty building.

Meanwhile across the library, Yumi had found it, the book she was looking for. She had been a couple sentences into the first page when her shoulder brushed up against someone else's. Automatically, she moved out of the way, murmuring a little apology.

"Sorry," replied the other person, but instead of continuing down the isle, they stayed put. "Oh, Yumi. Fancy meeting you here."

She looked up, a little disappointed because of the interruption. "Hi Theo."

"So, how's the book?" Theo asked her quietly. "I've heard it's supposed to be really great."

Yumi shrugged, "So far so good."

"That's cool. I—"

Odd rounded the corner, stepping into the conversation with a slightly confused look on his face. "Hey there."

Theo gave a small wave.

"You ready to go, Yumi?" Odd turned to her.

She closed the book, clutching it with her palm along the spine. "Yup."

"I'll see you guys at school," he said as they started back to the check-out counter.

"Bye," Yumi gave a friendly smile. It was almost a little awkward. They hadn't spoken much since the dance, and she didn't really know what to talk about. The conversations always fell into an uneasy silence.

After getting the book checked out, Yumi and Odd left the library, and continued down the street.

"Where's our next stop?" Odd kicked a loose pebble down the sidewalk, watching it jump across the pavement.

"How should I know? You're the creative one."

"Hmm," he cocked an eyebrow fiendishly. "Ok. You want imagination, you got it."

• • •

Jeremie stretched out his fingers before laying them down on a familiar keyboard (so well used that the letters on the keys had begun to wear off).

Aelita sat down a little ways away with her own laptop in hand. "Alrighty. What's on the menu today?"

"Oh not much. Just an anti-virus program with skid updates on the side," He started up the computer.

She sighed, almost depressed, "Same old, same old."

"Yeah," Jeremie didn't seem to notice, or be bothered by this.

With a hum of boredom and hint of misery, she opened up her laptop and got ready as she always did, to work on whatever Jeremie figured important. As usual, she had gotten into the habit of just not having weekends.

• • •

"Orange Julius?" A short walk later, Yumi was looking quizzically at the shop that they had stopped infront of.

"That's right. Because I was imagining a hotdog," Odd explained.

"Oh," she snorted. "Well in that case..."

Two minutes later, Odd had received his hotdog, while Yumi was handed a small pina colada smoothie. Another minute later, they were tossing out their empty cup and cleaned out container, groaning as they did.

"Brain freeze," Yumi squinted her eyes shut.

"Heheheheh," Odd chuckled, rubbing his ever-scrawny stomach. "Alright, now let me show you what I would call a Sunday morning."

Yumi looked a little worried.

• • •

At the same time, back at Kadic, Ulrich was in his room, staring out the window blankly. There was nothing, what so ever, to do to keep him entertained.

All the good video games had been played, and movies watched. Odd was MIA, probably off somewhere having a wonderful time, the Einstein's were being their usual boring selves, and he didn't dare think about calling Yumi. Not after the dance. And that left him with zilch.

Unless he figured dog walking and/or grooming was fun, which he didnt. Ulrich looked over at Kiwi who was sleeping in his half-open drawer. When was the last time Odd gave that dog a bath?

He didn't want to think about it. Trying to clear his mind he sighed and gazed back out the window. And then he saw someone bizarre speed through the courtyard like he was being tailed by the fuzz.

That was funny, Ulrich thought. He knew he had seen him before somewhere. It was déjà vu at a distance, but somehow the shady figure both didn't appeal to Ulrich, making him feel like he would need to keep his guard up if he ever met the guy, and also reminded him. It was like trying to recal a forgotten dream, which usually didn't work for Ulrich.

Gee it really did look like the kid was absconding with something. Ulrich couldn't see it past his dark coat but the boy's shifty gaze was suspicious.

Ulrich shrugged it off. Despite the weird vibe he was getting, it was probably just his imagination. He accepted that he might never know what the gothic boy had had with him, if anything, and just let it go. He had bigger problems to worry about, bigger fish to fry.

• • •

After a long long morning of popping in and out of comic kiosks, and vintage movie shoppes, the two finally decided to call it quits and get some lunch. Odd suggested his sister's friend's small cafe, and to Yumi's surprise, he wasn't kidding when he said they made the best sandwiches.

"Wow, this is really good," Yumi said between bites.

"What did I tell you? Stephan here is the best salami sandwich slicer-upper ever," Odd was almost finished his third sandwich.

"Thanks Odd, but I learned from the best," the tall guy smiled cheerfully. "Speaking of which, how's Pauline doing?"

"Eh, you know, same old same old," Odd shrugged.

"Well, that can't be all bad," Stephan reasoned, seeming to recal memories in his mind.

"We'd better get going, but it was nice meeting you," Yumi saw that she and Odd had both wrapped up, and slid her coat off the back of the chair.

"Yeah, you too," he replied, scooping up the empty plates. "See you around Odd."

"Bye," as they exited, Odd caught something in the corner of his eye. It was Charlie, sitting in the far corner of the cafe with his nose in a newspaper.

"Huh," He figured it was quite a coincidence.

"What?" Yumi asked as the exited.

"Charlie," he gestured back into the cafe.

"Who?"

She hasn't met him yet, he reminded himself. It was probably the grade difference. "The new kid at school. Gee, it's like he's been following us," Odd mumbled wearily.

"Nervous?" Yumi joked.

"Yeah," he nodded. "He might tell Mrs hertz that I was out and about instead of studying for the chemistry test tomorrow."

She just laughed. Checking the time on her phone, she saw a text that she hadn't noticed before. It was sent ten minutes ago by her mom:

You promised to help me clean remember?

"Awww," she groaned.

Odd raised a curious eyebrow.

Yumi turned her phone around, showing him the text. Frowning, she explained it briefly. "I guess I better go. A promise is a promise."

"I'll see you tomorrow then," he waved cheerfully as she slipped away in the other direction.

• • •

Later that day, a knock came to Aelita's door, but she didn't hear it. A few seconds later, the knock was back again, and still no response.

"Aelita? Hello," Jeremie opened the door to find her asleep at her desk, face down on the math text book. He came over, shaking her shoulder gently. "Aelita, it's time for dinner."

She lifted her head with a yawn. "Yeeeah, ok." The two headed down to dinner.

In the lunch room, the only one to be found (besides Aelita and Jeremie) was Odd, who was busy scarfing down the shepard's pie like he hadn't eaten for weeks.

"Hey there," Aelita sat down at the table.

Odd responded with a wave.

"Where's Ulrich gone to?" Jeremie wondered out loud.

Odd swallowed the food before speaking. "Soccer practice. Didn't you hear about the schedule change?"

The other two shook their heads.

"Well with all the sports that go one here, the field was booked most of the time—except at lunch because everyone is eating. And that's why the soccer team took the opportunity. They ate earlier," Odd explained.

"Oh ok," Aelita nodded. "That makes sense."

Out of the blue, Jeremie paused eating and sniffed the air. "You smell like (sniff sniff) black licorice," he said to Odd, who looked at him quizzically.

Aelita snorted. "Maybe it's because he's been hanging out withmadame black licorice today," She started to laugh at her own joke. It was no secret of Odd and Yumi's whereabouts today.

"What can I say if I have a way with the ladies?" Odd smirked.

"Eh-ehem," Jeremie looked at him seriously.

Odd raised his hands in defense. "I'm kidding! I'm kidding! Yeah we went to the library this morning, so what? Are you going to accuse the forty/fifty other people who were there of going out with Yumi too?"

Jeremie was quiet.

"I didn't think so," Odd made his point. "And besides, if anything it was Yumi who was coming on to me. Not my fault." He scooped another fork-ful into him mouth. "Nope."

Aelita and Jeremie exchanged glances.