yay!! i'm updating!! lol

whooo! it's Aelita's birthday! enjoyyy

Chapter 18

Yumi's POV

Nothing too hugely eventful has happened in the past week. It was just your average school week… well, besides the fact that everyone now hates Sissi, almost every person stopped to scream at William's huge bruise now that he's out of the hospital, constant fights kept breaking out between Odd's girlfriends and girls convinced they're Ulrich's secret love, and Jeremie acting weird and emo again.

Okay… so maybe a lot has happened this week.

You'd think this is the worst time for a new person to move in with all of the drama and stuff… but Anna Xana is great with it. She's like, a peacemaker for the whole school. Everyone loves her and she loves everyone. Except for Jeremie… I really don't know what is going on between them, but Anna kind of hates him.

And when I say that Anna loves everyone, I mean everyone. As in, she is the only person who feels sympathetic for Sissi right now… believe it or not, but they're actually friends. Maybe there's hope in Sissi yet.

But okay… onto what you really want to hear about… me and Ulrich.

Honestly… there's not much to say. I've been avoiding him the entire week. The only time I've actually seen him this week is during classes, and we sit as far away from each other as we can. During one chemistry class he got in late and had to sit at the desk behind me, so only five minutes into class he says he has a fever and goes to the infirmary.

But now it's Friday, and I have to go to Aelita's birthday party, a place I can't leave. Normally, not being able to leave a party wouldn't be a problem… except Ulrich's going to be there. And I can honestly say I haven't been this freaked out in my entire life.

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Aelita's POV

Happy Birthday to me!

It had taken all morning to set up for my birthday party (and when I say all morning I mean all morning), but finally... finally it was going to happen. People were just beginning to arrive. Melanie looked a little out-of-breath from our super-speed put-together of the party, and Yumi looked… well, she looked like she was considering the option of jumping off the roof just so she wouldn't have to see Ulrich.

I was definitely going to have to keep an eye on her during this party.

A large group of people had just climbed the stairwell and onto the roof, most of them rushing towards me with presents and saying "Happy Birthday, Aelita!" I, naturally, said thank you, and took their presents to a table on the side. They all moved away until only three people remained. William, Anna, and Sissi.

Melanie, who had noticed William arrive, quickly walked towards him. William seemed to notice her at the same time, and the two of them went to the other end of the roof and began talking animately with each other near the ledge.

I turned my attention back to Sissi and Anna.

"Hello Sissi," I said, trying to restrain my anger. I couldn't believe she had pushed Odd down the stairs. She was the reason Odd was stuck in the hospital during this party.

Strangely enough, Sissi didn't say anything to insult me. She just looked away, hiding her expression. Anna, who was standing beside her, looked at me pleadingly as if saying "please don't kill her".

I sighed and walked away, back to Yumi, who was shaking hyperactively. "Yumi, are you okay?" I asked, pressing the back of my hand to her forehead. She was a little hot.

"Fine," she mumbled. I couldn't tell if she was just nervous about seeing Ulrich, or if she was getting a fever. I didn't have a chance to figure it out, because at that moment an anxious-looking Jeremie came up to me.

"Happy Birthday, Aelita," he said with hesitant enthusiasm, handing me a small square box wrapped in shiny silver paper. I smiled. "Thank you, Jeremie."

It was weird to hear him talking to me so normally… he hadn't spoken to me all week. I looked down at the little box in my hands, suddenly dieing to know what was inside.

"Can I open it now?" I asked. Jeremie gave me a nervous nod.

I gently peeled and picked at the tape on the sides of the box, aware of both Jeremie and Yumi watching me intently (Yumi was as curious about what was in the box as I was). I slowly unwrapped the rest of the present, pulling out a small velvet box inside.

I opened it and gasped. It was a beautiful golden locket- it even had a fancy "A" engraved into the front.

I lifted it up to the light and admired the way the sun sparkled on it. Then I noticed Jeremie was watching me, waiting impatiently for my reaction.

"Thank you so much, Jeremie!" I shrieked, practically leaping into his arms. He laughed and blushed hugely, hugging me back.

When I looked back at where Yumi had been standing, expecting to see her looking smug, I realized she was gone...

Ulrich must be here.

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Everything was going perfectly. Even though the stereo was blasting music so loud I'm sure every building around Kadic could hear us, the police hadn't come. Everyone was dancing or talking or eating… no one had even fallen off the side of the building yet!

I was amazed Sissi hadn't fallen off yet… everyone was trying to push her off. She was lucky she had Anna Xana as a friend to protect her.

I had even gotten some amazing presents! Obviously Jeremie had gotten me that beautiful locket. Yumi and Melanie had gotten me tickets to a concert where my absolutely favorite band was playing, Ulrich had gotten me a few CD's I had wanted, and Anna had gotten me some adorable clothes.

Speaking of Anna….

I easily spotted her in the midst of the crowds of people dancing, wearing her extremely bright yellow sundress. "Anna?" I called out as I approached her, walking into the crowd of dancers.

"Aelita!" she exclaimed, spinning me around. "Come on, dance with us!" she shouted over the loud music. Sissi, who was dancing next to her, cringed at the idea.

"Maybe a little later," I said loudly over the roar of the music. "Have you seen Yumi?"

She glanced around a bit and shrugged, shaking her head. Then her eyes fell on someone behind me and her face lit up with a smile, looking surprised. "Hey, I didn't think Odd would be able to come!" she exclaimed.

I turned around to see Odd talking to some girl at the punch table, sitting in his wheel chair. Excitement burst through me.

I quickly hurried out of the crowd of dancers to talk to Odd when my excitement turned to outrage. I ran up to Odd, horrified.

"Sup, Aelita?" he said with a huge, goofy grin on his face, his words slurred together.

"Odd?" I asked in disbelief. "Did you break out of the hospital?"

He giggled, pulling out a bag full of clear fluids that was hooked onto the back of his wheelchair. I gasped when I realized that it was attached to an IV in his hand. Using his arm that was still in a sling, he grabbed a cup of fruit punch and was about to pour it into his IV bag when I grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

"Odd, are you insane?!" I shouted. Jeremie came running up beside me. "Why is Odd insane?" he asked.

Odd's pupils widened hugely in size and he pointed at something behind us. "EVERYONE, RUN!" he screamed. "IT'S GODZILLA!" Jeremie and I turned around to see that he was pointing at Sissi as she walked by. She blinked, looking confused, then kept walking.

Odd's eyes didn't follow her, but continued gazing at where she stood with a glazed-over look to them.

"I think the doctors must've given Odd some really strong painkiller drugs," Jeremie whispered into my ear.

I watched Odd drool over a plastic cup, looking at it hungrily before shoving it in his mouth. "I think you're right," I whispered back to Jeremie.

He rolled his chair up to me, motioning for me to come closer. I bent down next to him, until our faces were nearly touching. "Aelita," he whispered in my ear, cupping his hands around my mouth and my ear so no one would hear. Except he was whispering so loud I'm pretty sure Jeremie was listening to every word.

"I've never told anyone this before but…" he looked around anxiously. "I think I can fly." My jaw dropped open and I looked over at Jeremie, wondering what his reaction would be. He looked worried.

"Odd," I said slowly, "I don't think you can fly." His eyes lit up.

"But I can, Aelita! Watch me!" He hopped out of his wheelchair, jumping on his good food and balancing with his arm that wasn't in a sling. "Odd!" I screamed as he hopped towards the edge of the roof.

Jeremie and I both ran up to grab him but we were too late. Only a couple more hops and… well, I didn't really want to think about that. Thank god he tripped and fell flat on his face, the tip of his hair lingering over the edge of the roof. He reached out over the edge of the roof with one hand.

"I have to save the world!" he said dramatically. Jeremie and I exchanged glances and shrugged, hoisting him back up into his wheel chair. Instantly his expression changed from sad and dramatic to happy and dazed.

"I got you a present, Aelita," he said, beaming up at me as he rolled his wheel chair over to the present table.

"Do you think we should call the hospital?" Jeremie asked me in a low tone. Suddenly Odd burst out of his chair screaming "SANTA CLAUSE!" He hugged Jeremie tightly.

"Hey Santa," Odd said, poking Jeremie's nose with his finger, "what happened to your mustache?"

I ignored them, picking up the present at the top of the pile that had a card saying, 'to Aelita, from Odd (AKA Daisy)' in big letters. It was an animal cage, and immediately I became worried. What if Odd had gotten me a raccoon or something?!

I opened up the cage and my jaw dropped open. "Oh. My. Gosh."

Inside the box was a tiny little kitten, the color of snow. It meowed softly, looking up at me with azure blue eyes. I picked it up out of the box, holding the tiny animal in my arms. It purred softly.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I exclaimed excitedly, looking up to hug Odd. But he and Jeremie weren't there anymore.

"Uh oh, my new little kitty," I whispered, stroking its soft fur, "where did he go?"

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Yumi's POV

I felt like I'm an outlaw or a criminal or something, running from my imminent capture like this. I wonder if people who are involved with running away from the police in a car chase feel like this….

I was running from Ulrich, obviously. And seeing as I'm stuck hiding on this stupid little roof, I'm surprised Ulrich hasn't found me yet.

But then I saw someone (not Ulrich, thank the lord) who totally shocked me. Odd? What was he doing here? Judging by the IV still attached to him, I was guessing he wasn't supposed to be here.

"Odd?" I asked.

He giggled, clutching the wheels of his wheelchair. I worry for that boy's sanity.

"Odd, are you okay?"

He smirked widely. "I have a place you can hide from Ulrich in," he whispered. I don't know why he was giggling or smirking, or even how he had escaped from the hospital. I only knew it was in my best interest to avoid the insanity of Odd.

But… I did know that I wanted to escape from Ulrich too much to turn down his offer, so I nodded.

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Ulrich's POV

I swear Odd, the moment I get out of here, I'm going to murder you for this.

I had asked Odd for a place to hide… a place where I could make sure Yumi didn't find me, and he locks me in a closet. A janitor's closet, I'm guessing… seeing as their cleaning supplies everywhere.

Ugh, what is wrong with that kid anyway?

Suddenly a huge burst of light enters the tiny little closest and someone falls backwards into it. "NO!" I shouted, diving over to get out before the door was closed, but my head hit the door as it slammed shut.

"Oww…" I moaned, gritting my teeth while I listened to Odd's evil laughter on the other side of the door.

"You are so dead, Odd!" I yelled. His maniacal laughing continued ascended the staircase back up to the party. I was preparing to begin screaming a huge list of swear words at Odd when the person who had fallen into the closet spoke.

"Ulrich?"

I clenched my fist. Damn it, Odd, you are so dead!

Yumi moaned, standing up and beginning to try to open the door. "It's locked," I told her, as I began searching the ceiling for some sort of light. She continued banging and kicking the door anyway.

"Of all the fucking people to get locked in a closet with," Yumi muttered under her breath as she kicked the door loudly. After a minute or so I gave up my search for a light and slid down the wall to sit on the ground.

"I can't believe there's no light in here."

Yumi sighed, plopping onto the ground as far away in the closet as she could from me. "I can't believe I'm stuck with you in here."

Trust me Yumi, I can't believe I'm stuck with you in here either.

"Why are you in here, anyway?" she asked.

"Odd told me he had somewhere I could… hide," I admitted with a shrug. I decided not to tell her I was hiding from her, but I think she guessed it anyway.

"Same," she said. She was hiding from me?

An awkward silence filled the closet.

"Well this is retarded," Yumi mumbled, kicking at something with her foot. I watched her intently, deep in thought.

"I can't believe Odd would lock us in here… I mean, he knows we hate each other," Yumi said, but she sounded hesitant. She stopped kicking at the little object on the ground to look up at me, waiting for confirmation.

"Yeah… we hate each other," I agreed, but my voice wasn't very convincing. Saying that I hated Yumi felt like a lie on my lips. I realized we were looking into each other's eyes and looked away quickly, my face heating up.

Silence fell over the dark little room again. I made sure Yumi was looking down before glancing up at her again, watching as she allowed a curtain of hair to fall over her face. "Ulrich?" she asked. She sounded different. A little more serious I suppose… I was too used to her sarcasm.

"Yeah?" I asked. The closet went quiet again. Why wasn't Yumi answering? Why wasn't she saying anything?

Don't you ever wish that life was just more straightforward? That people would just go right out and say how they feel, and when you suddenly were unsure of your feelings for the person you've despised your whole life, you knew how to figure out if you liked them or not?

Wouldn't it just make life that much easier?!

Just then, the entire room began to shake. Yumi and I both stood up in alarm, shouting and screaming as we dodged random things that were falling from the shelves of the closet.

The entire ceiling suddenly caved in, huge amounts of debris crushing Yumi and me to the ground.

I would never know what Yumi was about to say.

I would never be able to murder Odd because he had locked us in here in the first place.

In fact, I would never be able to speak another word… because Yumi and I… were… DEAD.

Hahahahahaha, just kidding! Back to the scene…

"Ulrich?" she had asked.

"Yeah?" The closet when deathly quiet again.

"Never mind."

I swear, the silence in this closet was going to kill me.

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Aelita's POV

The entire party was in an uproar. Everywhere girls were screaming, whether at each other, or they were cursing Odd's name. Apparently Odd had decided to take my advice. He had just announced every single girl he was dating, and yes, that means all 20 of them, over the microphone I had set up for karaoke.

I had been searching everywhere for Melanie and Yumi to help me get the party in order, but I had only found Melanie. Yumi was nowhere to be found, meaning Ulrich had found her first. That was bad news.

"Aelita," Melanie came up to me, looking frantic. "Someone is running around with the punch bowl so they can dump it on Odd!"

"Where did he go?!" I shouted, looking around. I tried to calm the little white kitten in my arms, but the noise and confusion scared her. And yes, she is a her… before Odd made his little announcement, he had taken the time to tell me my kitten was a girl.

"Uh, I have a delivery for a Miss Aelita Hopper?" a confused looking delivery guy said, standing on the edge of the roof. He looked around at the mass of angry girls. Everyone crowded around the huge package he had delivered.

"This must be a mistake, I didn't order anything," I told him, but he just shrugged and left. I was somewhat thankful for the mysterious package- the girls had ceased fighting to see what was in the box.

I lifted the off the top and I felt my face screw up in confusion as I looked at the gigantic cake before me. It was big enough to be a wedding cake, but it had 'Happy Birthday Aelita' written on the top in pink icing.

And then BAM!

Odd popped out of the cake.

Almost everyone screamed and jumped back in shock. William fainted.

"Oh my god! William!" Melanie screeched, rushing over to him. She shook him, trying to wake him up. "Just when he gets out of the hospital…" she muttered.

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Yumi's POV

I didn't know what to say. We had sat in this closet for the past 10 minutes not saying a word to each other, and it was driving me insane. But if the silence didn't drive me insane, then Ulrich would.

It was impossible to try to figure out what he was thinking or how he felt about me. He had sat there for the past 10 minutes completely unmoving and silent, diverting his eyes from me, letting his hair fall all over his face, his expression totally unreadable. This sucks.

I wanted to push the bubbly feeling out of my stomach by just insulting Ulrich, but whenever I tried to think of a good insult, nothing came to mind. It was like the sensible, Ulrich-hating part of my brain just shut down.

"Yumi?" Ulrich asked suddenly, his voice low and serious.

"Yeah?" I responded, forgetting to hide my eagerness. Oops.

He sat there, still not saying anything. Come on Ulrich… the suspense is killing me!

I decided to try preventing my mind from going into a complete frenzy by distracting it. So let's see… let's try to figure out me and Ulrich's situation here….

Okay. So, number one. Me and Ulrich both end up in this closet, thanks to a certain insane someone, by trying to hide from each other. Hmm… that's a little ironic, but oh well.

Number two. We've been sitting here in dead silence, me trying to figure out how the hell he feels about me, and Ulrich… doing who knows what over there.

Number three. I can't come up with an insult for Ulrich… but why? I still hate him… don't I?

Well… let's just say, hypothetically, that I don't hate Ulrich. Hypothetically, of course. Is the reason Ulrich isn't insulting me right now, and the reason he's been acting weird around me for the past few months because he doesn't hate me either?

Does he… actually like me?

Is he really just waiting for the right moment, or the right time, or the right something… to tell me how he feels?

"Nothing," Ulrich quickly said, answering my question from before.

Or does Ulrich still hate me?

Then suddenly, for reasons completely unknown to me, I felt the need to sit next to him. Just to be closer to him, to be able to see his face, to be able to hear him breathing….

I shifted in place awkwardly, trying to shake off the weird feeling, aware of Ulrich watching me. He shifted nervously too, clenching a fist at his side.

The unyielding need to be close to him strengthened, and suddenly I worried about what might happen if I got up and moved next to him. Would he look at me like I was crazy? Would he snuggle in closer to me?

Would he move away?

Then a huge burst of light came from the doorway, the silhouette of a figure standing there. I rubbed my eyes, blinking rapidly as I stood up.

Jeremie was standing there, looking confused. "Uhhhh… am I interrupting something?"

I almost answered yes, when I realized he wasn't really interrupting anything. Ulrich left the closet quickly, but instead of going back up to the party like I expected, he headed in the direction of his dorm. I guess he was going to murder Odd later.

Feeling dazed, I told Jeremie, "Odd locked us in the closet."

"Oh," Jeremie said, recognition lighting up his face. I began to walk upstairs to the party, but then decided I was too out of it to do anything social. So instead I wandered back to my dorm room, wondering what had just happened.

lol William fainted when Odd popped out of the cake... that's so amazing.

please write me lots of reviews!!!!!

--bRoK3n h3aRt--