"Hey, what are you doing in the kitchen Jeremy?" Aelita inquired from her position at the stove next to Yumi. "Not that we don't want you in here," she added hastily.
Jeremy kept his eyes glued to his laptop screen, which he had gone upstairs and retrieved from his bag.
"For the interests of my sanity, I cannot remain in the same room alone with Odd, Peter, and Ulrich for more than a few minutes," he responded, not missing a beat or stopping his rapid-fire typing.
Aelita giggled. "That bad, huh?" Yumi asked, rolling her eyes as she stirred a pot. Two bowls rested on the counter beside the stove. There was one on Aelita's side. "Would you like to go and see?" Jeremy asked her.
Everyone winced as a thud sounded from the living room, followed by a yell.
"I don't think so,"Yumi answered.
"Good choice," Jeremy responded.
"Is the food almost done?" Odd yelled from the living room.
"Almost!" Yumi and Aelita chorused loudly, each producing another bowl. "Okay Aelita, that's enough. I'll finish the last bowl," Yumi said. Aelita nodded and made sure to use a mitt to grab the empty pot and put it in the sink, where she washed her hands. "Thanks Aelita. You were a big help," Yumi smiled, putting a thumbs up. "You're welcome. It was pretty fun, anyway," she responded.
"Probably more fun than waiting in the living room with Peter, Odd, and Ulrich," Jeremy muttered.
"What do you do on the computer, now that you don't have to work on Lyoko and all that?" Yumi wondered, producing the last bowl and bringing the pot to the sink, where she washed her hands, like Aelita.
"Uh, you know, researching information," he said, cheeks turning pink as he hurried to close the window. It was the truth, just not the whole truth...
Yumi frowned in confusion at his behavior, leaning over to peer at the screen. She saw it right before he closed it.
He was researching dating.
A grin spread out on Yumi's face and Jeremy reddened. "What are you researching?" Aelita inquired. "Nothing!" Jeremy replied hastily, blushing hard. Aelita looked to Yumi for an explanation, but all she did was shrug with a smile, barely holding back a grin as Jeremy shot her a pleading look.
He sighed with relief and sank into into his chair. "I'm going use the bathroom," the boy announced, wanting an excuse to be somewhere where he could blush without being teased. He closed his laptop before hurrying out of the room, hanging his head so his blond hair would conceal the blush. "What's up with him?" Aelita asked as she put three bowls on a tray provided by Yumi.
"As Odd would say: when you got to go, you got to go, I guess," the Japanese girl laughed as she also gathered bowls on a tray.
They brought it into the living room to eat. After much asking, and asking, (Aka begging) from Odd, they revoked his 5 minutes left on the dare. Jeremy joined them shortly afterward, and they all sat down to eat.
"Thish ish rerry good," Odd said through a mouthful.
"Thanks, but please don't talk with your mouth full," Yumi said, making a face.
Odd chewed, swallowed, and repeated. "This is really good."
"Yeah you guys; it's awesome," Peter said. "Thanks, but it was Yumi who taught me," Aelita said modestly, all gazes turning to Yumi.
She blushed. "It's not that hard to make."
"Even so, it's very nice," Jeremy said.
After everyone finished (Which was about 7 minutes after Odd did) they put their bowls in the sink.
"So, what should we do now?" Yumi asked.
Everyone frowned or tilted their head thoughtfully. "What about a movie?" Peter suggested. "That sounds fun," Yumi and Aelita agreed while the other two boys nodded. "What are we going to watch?"
After much debating, (which gave Yumi, Aelita, and Jeremy a head ache) they agreed to watch three movies, one of each from Odd, Peter, and Ulrich.
Odd's was a horror, Peter's was adventure (Indiana Jones!), and Ulrich's was action.
Yumi popped three bowls of popcorn (One for Odd and two for the others), Peter got a big blanket from upstairs, and Ulrich went upstairs to get his movie.
The five got comfortable on the couch, (Odd called the chair) and Yumi put in the disc before going back to sit. Peter was on the end, next to Aelita, who was of course next to Jeremy, and Yumi and Ulrich were on the end.
"Why is it so dark?"
Everyone looked out the window, but no one offered an explanation.
"Why is it so dark?" Odd repeated. "It's only 1:52."
Yumi frowned. "There must be a storm coming," she said. Indeed, there were dark clouds out, obscuring the sky and making it look like it was at least 7:30pm if you judged by darkness.
"A... A storm?" Aelita asked quietly.
"Yeah. It's probably going to be a big one too, with lots of lightening and thunder," Yumi said, causing Aelita's stomach to churn as she gazed out the window with the others, all oblivious to the tone of her voice, except for Jeremy. He turned his head, expression full of worry. Aelita forced a smile. Even though Jeremy smiled back, the look in his eyes said that he wasn't buying it.
"We can talk about storms and whatnot later," Odd interrupted, "but the movie is starting."
Try to push her nervousness aside, Aelita paid attention to the movie.
They had barely started it when a drizzle came, turning into a fierce downpour in less than five minutes. The wind howled, and weak trees whipped around. It wasn't until halfway through the movie when lightening flashed, a loud thunderclap following. Aelita bit back a yelp as everyone continued intently watching the movie.
A few minutes later, the movie just turned off, all lights following shortly after. Odd let out a groan as the room became completely dark, lighted only by the feeble streetlights outside. Aelita was unable to suppress a small whimper.
For a few seconds, the only sound was the pounding rain and crunching popcorn.
"So, what are we supposed to do now?" Odd asked.
"Don't worry, we've got an emergency power supply," Yumi answered, standing. "Ouch!" yelled Jeremy. "You stepped on my foot."
"Sorry," Yumi apologized, carefully feeling her way in the darkness, and finally reaching a wall. Suddenly a tiny light flickered, and they discovered that Yumi was holding a lighter. It only shone on her face, then to the panel on the wall when she brought it closer. "Great!" she moaned. "I got to the power supply, but there are so many knobs and switches. I don't know what to do."
There was a collective groan from three boys.
"Why don't I have a look?" Jeremy asked.
"You can try," Yumi invited.
Careful not to step on anyone's feet, or trip, or bump into some unseen object, Jeremy walked over to the wall. "This isn't that hard. I know what to do," he said to Yumi, turning certain knobs and flipping a switch.
Suddenly the lighter went out.
"Yumi, I can't see the knobs," Jeremy said. "Ugh, the stupid lighter went out," the black haired girl grumbled.
Suddenly there was a series of clicks as Yumi tried to get the lighter to work. A few times, their were brief flashes of light, shadowing Yumi's frustrated expression. Suddenly lightening flashed, and with a second of light, Jeremy was able to turn another knob, although he wasn't finished.
A humongous thunderclap followed, so loud that everyone jumped and one person screamed.
"Who screamed? Odd, was that you?" Peter accused.
"No way! Didn't you hear how high-pitched it was?" Odd asked. "It was probably one of the girls. Unless... Jeremy, did you...?"
"Of course I didn't scream," Jeremy responded irritably.
"Uh, sorry to interrupt, but I wouldn't mind knowing who's hugging me...?" Peter suddenly said.
"Sorry," came Aelita's voice, unusually small and timid. Peter felt arms release him.
"I was leaning to one side, when I... uh, my arm slipped," she lied, cheeks becoming red and suddenly thankful for the darkness so no one could see her blush. In truth, as soon as there was a thunderclap, she had tightly hugged Peter in fear, him being the closest. She would have preferred Jeremy, but he was trying to get the lights.
Lightening flashed, and Jeremy was able to flip another switch.
Of course, shortly thereafter a loud boom followed. There was another scream and Peter felt arms tighten around him once again. One of Jeremy's hands jerked on the knob he was turning at the suddenness of the scream.
"Okay, whoever is doing that, please stop, because you're creeping me out," Odd said.
"Sorry," Aelita apologized quietly.
Suddenly the lights flickered back on. "Yes," said Jeremy triumphantly.
There was another thunderclap.
Gazes were drawn to Peter and Aelita on the couch.
She was hugging him, head buried in his shoulder. At the look the others gave him, Peter spread his arms out, palms raised upward in a gesture of confusion. (She had not restrained his arms)
'I think she's scared', he mouthed.
Jeremy nodded and went back to sit by Aelita.
"Aelita...?"
He tapped her on the shoulder and she jumped, quickly pulling back away from Peter.
"Are you scared of thunder...?" Jeremy asked. Aelita stared at the ground, cheeks becoming red. She nodded slowly.
"Well, that's okay. It's perfectly naturally to be afraid of thunder," Jeremy reassured her, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"I know," Aelita responded, bringing her head up to at him. "It just seems silly that I'm afraid of noise."
"It doesn't matter. Lots of people are afraid of thunder," Jeremy said.
Aelita smiled gratefully at him.
They all settled in again, enjoying the movie, thanks to the emergency power supply.
I know the update is a bit late... sorry. I've been working on my art. I posted me and my friend's OCs. My OC, Star, and Aechigo's OC, Holly. If you want to know more about Holly, read Aechigo's story, A Weekend At Yumi's, I think it was. Although, it may be called Truth or Dare. My OC isn't currently featured in any stories...
I'll post the link as soon as I know how...
Shameless Advertisement: You should read the story called My Trip to Kadic, made by my friends: Lyokowarrior1994 and Matson. Yeah, go check it out!
P.S. If anyone would be kind enough to tell me how to post a link... ^^