Hello Everyone! I decided to update as a Thanksgiving gift to you all. I'm grateful to everyone that has reviewed this story. This chapter is especially for you reviewers.

Chapter 8: The Plan

Yumi woke up feeling pumped up. Now that she and Sissi were teaming up to take out Emily, she felt like she could finally save Ulrich from making the biggest mistake of his life. She had been giddy with anticipation since she arrived home, and her two roommates took notice of this. Once she informed them of what happened, Aelita and Sam were stunned into silence.

Aelita then hopped out of her seat and chirped, "I can't believe this! Sissi might be able to help you reveal the ugly truth about Emily! And if that happens, Ulrich will be all angry at Emily, and then he'd break up with her; then he'd be totally thankful to you two; then he can fire William . . ."

Sam and Yumi watched Aelita in utter awe. Just what was this girl on? They exchanged glances and then burst out laughing when Aelita mentioned Emily bawling her eyes out with mascara streaking down her face. Aelita stopped her rant and frowned in confusion.

"Wh-What's so funny?" she asked.

"Do you know how cliché that is?" Yumi asked. "Trust me, that's not going to happen."

"Besides we haven't found any proof yet." Sam pointed. Aelita frowned in disappointment.

"Yeah, but . . . it could happen."

Yumi put her hand on Aelita's shoulder. "Lita, you're so sweet and innocent. Thank God for Jeremie because the last thing we need is for someone to take advantage of you."

"Tell me about it." Sam mumbled in agreement. "If that'd happen, you'd be the one bawling on the floor."

"And then Sam would have to kill him." Yumi added.

"And you'd clean up the blood." Aelita said.

"Speaking of killing someone," Sam started, "my offer to get rid of Emily is still good." She said as she nudged Yumi in her arm.

"Sam, I'm not going to have you kill Emily."

"I'm not going to do it." She then looked around as if to make sure they weren't being spied on, and whispered, "I know a guy."

"Sam." Yumi said glaring at the girl.

"What?"

"We. Are. NOT. Hiring. A. Hitman." Yumi said.

"Fine! But you're going to regret not taking care of it the easy way."

"Since when was murder the easy way!" Aelita yelled.


Yumi was busy typing a speech for Ulrich, when he came into the office.

"Hi, Ulrich."

"Hey." Ulrich curtly said as he quickly made his way to his office.

"Wow, you got a rocket strapped to your butt or what?"

"I-I just wanna, uh, get to work!" Ulrich stuttered. Yumi stared after him, wondering what was up with him. If she didn't know any better, she would've thought that he was trying to get away from her. She shrugged this thought off and continued working.

When lunch break had started, Emily came just like she always did. Yumi kept typing, trying her best to ignore the foul witch that entered the room. Surprisingly, Emily didn't say a word to her. But once she came out with Ulrich, she decided to open that foul mouth of hers.

"Yumi, I heard about you and William." She said. "I just wanted you to know that I'm totally disgusted with what he did." Emily lied. Yumi felt a very violent rage swell inside of her. She was ready to pounce on her right then and there. But then she remembered that Ulrich was there calmed herself. She couldn't afford to hurt Emily now. Not yet anyways.

"Yeah, but Ulrich was kind enough to console me when it happened." Yumi smiled as she looked at Ulrich. She knew that comment would stir up some jealousy inside of Emily. Sure it wasn't a real threat, but it would have do for now.

Emily frowned a little, but quickly regained her composure. "Aww, how sweet."

"Looks he's blushing!" Yumi cooed. She laughed to herself as an embarrassed Ulrich looked at the ground and rubbed the back of his neck modestly.

Emily gave Ulrich a half-hearted smile. "How nice of you, Ulrich. Good thing you'd never cheat on me." That violent rage was turning rather murderous as Yumi grabbed her pen and tried to restrain from jabbing it deep into Emily's neck. She REALLY needed to stop hanging around Sam so much.

"Not even in my dreams would I do that." Ulrich said. He then chuckled a bit.

"What's so funny?" Yumi asked.

"It's nothing."

"I want to know too." Emily persisted.

"No, I just thought it was funny because if I did dream about a woman it would have to be you because you are the woman of my dreams." Ulrich quickly said.

Yumi frowned she could tell he was lying, but she kept silent because Emily was gushing with love from his comment. Ulrich saw Yumi shaking her head and gave her wink. Yumi's smile grew bigger. She didn't really know why he was laughing, but she knew that that wasn't really a compliment he was making, and that was alright with Yumi.

Emily started talking about eating at some fancy French restaurant. Yumi, not wanting to be around the gooey romance, decided to take her leave and eat with Sissi. There wasn't much to talk about. Neither had a plan to take out Sissi, and there was nothing new to talk about.


After an uneventful lunch break, Yumi returned to her office. To Yumi's surprise, Ulrich entered a few minutes after her. "You're back early." Yumi said.

"Yeah, I'm just tired, so I came back to take in a little nap." Ulrich said as he took a seat on the sofa in the office.

"Well you rest up." Yumi said as she patted him on the shoulder. "You really are tense though." Yumi said.

Yumi began proofreading the ads for the new video game they were creating. She had gotten through several of the ads, and was finding it quite stressful. She sighed as she stretched out her arms. She looked to her right to see Ulrich snoozing peacefully on the sofa. She smiled, he looked innocent when he slept, as opposed to the daring and wild look he had in his eyes when he was awake. She then frowned. Why was he sleeping? They're at work! He should be working, not sleeping. The nerve of some people. She went up to him, and shook him awake. He opened his eyes to find Yumi looking right at him. He yelped as he sat up, blushing like a fool. Yumi raised an eyebrow. "Y-You scared me." Ulrich said. "I mean I don't wanna wake up to your face." Ulrich said snobbishly.

Yumi snorted. "My face is more beautiful than any woman's face you've ever seen."

"Not Emily's." Ulrich protested.

"Well of course you'd say that, but ask anybody. I'm the most beautiful woman in the world." Yumi said in a sing-song voice as she pranced around the room like she was a snobbish princess.

"Hey, Yumi." Ulrich said changing to a serious tone. "If William gives you a hard time, just tell me. I'll fire him if you want.

"Ulrich, I told you—,"

"I know. But that was then. You might not really be over it. If you aren't, I'll fire him for you." Ulrich said.

Yumi gave him a questioning a look. She remembered what Sissi said when she told her what was really going on. Besides Emily, you're the only one who's ever gotten him to react in such a way. "Why do you care so much?"

Ulrich was taken aback by her question. "Um, I just—I mean you're my friend. Plus, I can't have my secretary distracted by such things."

"So why not fire me?" Yumi asked.

"Well, I need you more—I mean you're, you're more reliable, and we don't need William that much."

"Right, I mean sure he's the assistant head to one of the biggest parts of this company, but the least that'll happen is that the business falls into turmoil and we don't get to expand into Europe." Yumi said.

"But he can't be trusted!" Ulrich said defiantly. "He's a cheater and a liar, and I don't need that in my company. He did the wrong, and if anyone's leaving, it's him and not you. You are very important to this company. I—this company needs you. It needs people who are honest."

Yumi looked down and frowned. "Okay, Ulrich. But you won't have to fire him. I'll be oaky." Yumi said.

Ulrich hugged Yumi, and slowly let go. He rubbed the back of his neck, and went straight towards his office. Yumi sat down in her chair, and laid her head on the desk. She was really touched by what Ulrich had said, and she wished it was true. She wished she was that honest person that he saw her as. Ulrich really believed in her and depended on her. And she repaid his kindness and friendship by lying and deceiving him. How was she going to prove to Ulrich that Emily was a cheater? She wished she could tell Ulrich to leave Emily and he'd do it right away like he would do to William if she gave the word. If only was as simple as that . . . Hmm. Now there's a thought. Yumi smiled. She had the workings of a plan developing. If she executed this correctly, she would have the proof that she needed to show Emily for what she really was: a cheating, manipulative witch.


She quickly made her way to William's office. She knocked on his door, and it opened, revealing William. He took one look at her and frowned. "Oh, it's you. What do you want?" William asked, glaring at her.

Yumi stepped into the office and closed the door behind her. "I went out with you for five months. You cheated on me the entire time and even before that. Instead of having you fired, I let you keep your job. You owe bigtime, pal." Yumi said as she glared back.

William took a step back and looked away from her, as if he were thinking about something. When turned to face her, he seemed to be a little more confident. "I don't owe you a thing. The only reason I have a job is because you're scared to lose yours as well. Ulrich would never trust you if he found out, especially if I tell him and not you."

"But that's exactly what I want." Yumi said with a devious smile on her face. William's own smile faltered.

"What?"

"I want Ulrich to know everything that's been going on. And you're the only one who can tell Ulrich what's going on. Why? Because you have proof of Emily not caring about Ulrich. So here's what you're going to do. You're going to give me that proof. And if you don't, I'll just tell Ulrich to fire you. And then you'll tell him anyways."

William began stuttering. "W-Well, what makes you think I-I'll tell him if he fires me?"

Yumi laughed and shook her head. "Why wouldn't you? You mean you're just going to let me get you fired without trying to take me down with you? You're going to let me and Emily get away with lying to Ulrich, while you pay for it? Emily doesn't love you. I don't know why you even bribed her just so you could be with that skank anyways. If you're fired, she'll just find some other idiot to cheat with. So are you really that much of a wimp that you wouldn't at least try and get revenge?"

William stared at the woman before him. He couldn't believe that this was the same woman who giggled and joked with him on their dates. This was truly the other side of Yumi. The strong, manipulative woman. It reminded him of Emily's on cunningness, but hers was different. It wasn't as refined as Emily's, but it was good enough. Plus, there wasn't a malicious aura that came from the words she was saying. There was more of an honest resolve coming from them. Compared to Emily's, her resolve made her words even more controlling and intimidating. He felt he had no other choice but to give in.

"You're going to get us fired!" he growled.

"Oh, shut up!" Yumi snapped. "I don't care about this job! I hate working here if it means I have to lie to keep it. I'd rather we all go down if it means Ulrich knows the truth. We all lied, and we all deserve what's coming to us."

"Fine." William sighed. He grabbed a key off of his desk and unlocked a drawer to his filing cabinet. "I hope it's worth it."

"It will be. Besides, the only way you'd get fired is if Emily brings you into this."

"She will." William said.

"She's ruthless. If it wasn't for this tape," William said as he threw it at Yumi who barely caught it, "I would have never had got this job or such a woman to be with me."

Yumi studied the tape as if she could learn its secrets by just looking at it. She looked over his desk and saw a tape recorder. She tried placing the tape into it, but it was too small.

"What's up with this tape, William?" Yumi asked.

"It's a tape that goes into a phone machine. You have to put it in a phone and play it that way." Yumi then put it in his phone machine, and played it.

"Yeah, he and I went out with last night again. He is so hot!" Yumi could tell that that was Emily's voice. There was no denying that.

"But I thought you were dating Theo." It was another feminine voice, but Yumi didn't know who this girl as. When she heard Theo's name she felt a short jolt go through her stomach. Theo! How could she forget! Theo was dating someone during college! She had never met her, but it must have been Emily. She remembered seeing him hurt when he got dumped by her. Come to think of it, she found Emily and William making out in Theo's house. He must have invited her, and she snuck William in to "have some fun." This newfound knowledge only kindled her fury even more.

"Yeah, I am. It's kind of exciting, cheating on them. Theo's sweet and nice, and he's helping me get a free ride through chemistry class. Ulrich's amazing and he can give me a free ride for the rest of my life. Or at least until I can divorce him and get a nice check for being with him."

"You are the devil." the other girl said. She actually said it as if it were a compliment. Emily must've taken it as such because she started laughing.

"If I play my cards right, I might even be able to get at least part-ownership of Stern Co. too."

"Don't you have any sympathy?"

"Nope. It's his own dumb fault for falling for it. He's falling into my trap, but he thinks he's falling in love with me."

"And you don't feel a thing for him?"

"No, and it'll stay that way. The only thing I'll feel it his body." Then Emily let out a howl of laughter.

Yumi clenched her fists. There was more to it, but she couldn't bear to hear anymore. She took the tape out and glared at William. Then she slapped him.

"You are the most disgusting man I have ever met in my life. How you can sit there using such vice for your own gain is beyond me. You better hope I don't bring your name into this on my own." Yumi said, her voice was consumed with loathing and disgust. She walked out of the room and went down to the break room. She sat there for a while, trying to let everything she just heard soak in. What kind of hole did Emily crawl out of? How did she become so vile?

"Yumi?" Yumi looked up to see Sissi standing before her. "What's up?" Sissi asked.

Yumi smiled. "Sissi, I have in my hands, the answer to our prayers." She said as she showed her the tape.


Sissi and Yumi were in one of the secluded offices. Yumi and Sissi had listened to the phone conversation in utter silence. Sissi looked at Yumi. "Yumi, you amaze me. I mean I didn't know I was sitting with the most brilliant manipulator ever." She said as she and Yumi giggled. Sissi calmed herself and then grew worried.

"Yumi. Let me see that tape." Yumi took the tape out of the phone machine and gave it to Sissi. Sissi began frowning.

"Yumi, I've seen a lot of phone tapes, and this one's a copy of the actual phone message." Yumi stared at her in confusion.

"You mean . . ."

"I mean that this will never do. All Emily has to say is that it's not a real phone tape and that it was probably made up."

Yumi's breathing got caught in her throat. "W-wait, How do you know?"

"Yumi, you're devious. The fact you got this tape proves this. But you're still too innocent and not nearly enough evil to realize that you can't trust a thing that people like Emily and William do. I'm not a nice person. Especially after Ulrich and I stopped hanging out. I've gotten myself involved with people like them. I've seen a lot of people like them thanks to my father being a lawyer. Law firms are filled to the brim with liars, cheaters, and deceivers. So I know things about forged messages and the difference between real phone tapes and just copies."

"Then why did Emily do what William want?" Yumi said, her voice cracking.

"William has the original. He probably decided to try his luck and give you a copy to fend you off. But he didn't know that you were with me."

"Then all we have to do is get him to give us the original." Yumi said.

"Honestly, Yumi, I don't think he'll give us the original." Sissi stated bluntly.

"Why not?"

"I always keep an ear out for gossip. The word is that William is taking up an offer with another gaming company. He's switching sides. He doesn't care about getting fired. If he's scared of anything, it's Ulrich punching his lights out."

Yumi banged on her fist on the table. "Just when I thought we were good."

Sissi gave Yumi an encouraging smile. "Don't worry. I've been doing a bit of scheming myself. I've got a friend who's into a lot of technology, and he gave me these wiretaps. I want you to hook these to William's, yours, and Ulrich's phones. That way if—and when—he calls Emily to tell her about what just happened, we'll be able to make our own recording and get our evidence that way."

"You really are an evil witch." Yumi smirked.

"No. I'm an evil princess. Emily's the evil witch."

"Whatever. But how am I going to get back into William's office to plant the bug?" Yumi asked.

"You know what, I'll take care of William's bug. It's less suspecting if I do it. You just plant your phone and Ulrich's phone."

"One more thing, what they use their cells?" Yumi asked.

"My friend's a REAL techno geek. He also made these wiretaps serve as microphones. They'll pick up their voices and get the call that way. Of course, if Emily uses her cell and is not in the vicinity of the bugs, we'll only get William's side of the conversation.

"But that should be enough. He's the one who has to say that I almost got the tape and blew their cover. That'll suffice." Yumi pointed.

"Right. Okay, good luck, and don't get caught." Sissi said.


On her way back to her office, she actually bumped into Ulrich. "Oh, Yumi, why aren't you in your office?"

"Just thought I'd stretch my legs." Yumi beamed at him and quickly walked away before he could question her further.

Yumi thanked God that Ulrich wasn't in his office as she practically ran towards the now empty office. She entered the office and went into Ulrich's office. She carefully placed the wiretap on the phone. Once it was secured, she stepped back to admire her handy work. She then heard a thump. It sounded like something was dropped into the trashcan. When she opened the door, she saw Emily. She seemed to be mumbling about something but upon hearing the door open, she looked up. When she saw it was Yumi, she glared at her.

"What are you doing here?" Yumi asked.

"I came to see if Ulrich was okay."

"What was that noise?" Yumi asked.

"Nothing that you need to worry about." She said plainly.

"Look, I'm just going to call my mother while I wait, so just mind your business." Emily spat as she went into Ulrich's office for privacy while she made the call.

Yumi watched Emily walk into the office. She knew that she was probably lying and was actually about to call William. Yumi placed the bug on her phone just in case she used it later on. A few minutes later, Ulrich entered the office and proceeded towards his own office. Shortly after, Emily walked out and gave Yumi another scowl before she left.

By afternoon time, Ulrich stepped out of his office. "See ya, tomorrow, Yumes." He mumbled as he exited the office. He then stuck his head back in the room and said, "Try not to work to late, Yumes."

"If you want this speech done in time, you'll let me finish it today." Yumi said as she busily typed away at her computer. Ulrich smiled and left.


A few minutes later, Sissi came into the room. "Okay, I got headphones and the wiretap machine. All we have to do is listen through the headphones. We'll try yours first." Sissi said as she walked in and place a rather complicated piece of machinery on Yumi's desk. She gave Yumi a pair of headphones as she put on her pair. "Now you had wiretap number 2, so I just press the number 2 button, and . . ." there was nothing but silence. "That means there were no calls made on your phone. So we'll try Ulrich's. That's wiretap 1."

She pressed the 1 button and then they heard a conversation begin.

"William, I told you not to send me texts messages! If Ulrich find out, he'll have both of our hides."

"I know, I know, but it's serious."

"What is it?"

"Yumi came into my office, demanding I give her the tape I have of you talking to your friend. She threatened to have me fired if I gave it to her."

"Y-you didn't give it to her did you?"

"No—well not the real thing. I gave her a copy. The real one's with me."

There was sighing. Probably from Emily.

"So I guess you're leaving me to clean this up, huh."

"You wanna keep that gold digger dream of yours alive, don't you?"

"Fine, I'll just lie and say that she forged it."

"Don't forget to delete this recording."

"I should be telling you that."

"You know that this means Yumi will get fired?" William asked.

"Yes, but the idiot had it coming. I'm sure going to miss the idea of bossing her around though." There was the sound of laughter. "Maybe I should let work with Sissi. Serves those wenches right."

"We can't afford to get caught again. If someone else exposes us, he'll have no choice to but to believe them."

"I know."

"Oh, you also left your bra at—,"

"Okay, that's enough." Yumi said as she pressed the stop button.

"Well it looks like we got our proof." Sissi said as she high fived Yumi. "Especially that last part." She snickered.

"Hey, if William still has the original, you think it might be here?" Yumi asked.

"It might be. And honestly, seeing as what we have here is a copy it'll be better to have some pure original evidence.

"Wait, so why couldn't we use the copy William gave me?"

"Because that's just one copy. No one would go to the trouble of making two. Plus with this device and the wiretaps here, it doesn't matter that the recording is a copy because it could only be made by copying a real phone message." The growing sound of footsteps reached the women's ears.

"That must be security." Yumi said. "Don't worry, I told them you had to help me with an assignment.

"Good. We should get the wiretaps and go." Sissi said. "We'll tell Ulrich about this tomorrow morning." After the removed the wires from Ulrich and Yumi's phones, they packed up and opened the door. Standing before them was Emily. She screamed and tackled Sissi who had the device in her hands. Yumi grabbed the phone machine before Emily could steal it. Emily grabbed onto as did Sissi, and the girls began a struggle for the phone.

"Let go of the stupid machine!" Emily bellowed.

"Why do you care so much about it?" Sissi said. "Because it contains the one thing that'll destroy all of your hard, gold-digging work?"

"Shut it!" Emily said. At that moment the door burst open, but the girls were too preoccupied to care about security.

"STOP IT!" That was sounded a lot like Ulrich. One quick glanced confirmed that it was. The girls all froze in fright. Sissi lost her balance and fell, knocking over the trash can and dropping the phone machine, which sparked Yumi and Emily to make a mad dash for it. Emily was trying desperately to press the erase button, while Yumi was trying to get it away from her.

Ulrich grabbed the phone machine and wrenched it out of the two girl's grasps.

"Get up." Ulrich growled to Sissi. She stumbled to her feet and stood next to the other two girls. "You three are going to tell what exactly is going on. And if I don't like what I here, someone will leave in tears. Now what's going on?"

Now you probably hate me even more than you did before last chapter. This is obviously a chapter of what happened that day told from Yumi's point of view. The next chapter will discuss what happens next. I'll try and have it up soon, but no promises. Next Chapter 9: The Aftermath