Chapter 3: Two Roses
Each gift is wrapped up neatly and tied with a shiny ribbon. Odette decides to wash the dishes the lunch lady left behind as she promised, as well as the ones she used to make the presents. As she is finishing up, she looks at the clock and remembers that she was supposed to be in detention for the past forty-five minutes. She tosses down the dishtowel and gathers up the gifts. She takes them to her room to hide them when she bumps into the tall man with the headband.
"Miss Dinone. I've been looking all over campus for you. You are supposed to be in detention. Explain yourself."
Odette recollects her composure, "Sir, I am very sorry. My mother called and wanted me to meet her after school so she could give me this." Odette holds up the box which contains the gifts.
Jim eyes the box and scratches his head. "Well, I suppose I can let it go this time, but you will report to the library after school first thing tomorrow, you understand?"
Odette smiles brightly and gives a polite bow, "Thank you very much, sir!" She turns around and hurries off to her dorm.
After putting away the box, she heads outside with the five small gifts in her arms. She spots Odd and his friends gathered around the same bench where she had spent the entire first half of her day.
"I can't believe your stupid dog tore up our room again." Ulrich says, annoyed.
"Hey, he doesn't know any better. He's only a dog," Odd says, "You shouldn't be so hard on him."
"Yeah well, you should teach him better. You're lucky I don't report you to Principal Delmas."
"Ulrich's right, Odd," Aelita cuts in, "You really shouldn't treat this so lightly. After all, Ulrich was nice enough to keep Kiwi a secret."
"She's right, Odd, and this is the third time it's happened this month."
"Yeah, well that's just great. I guess you all are against me now? Well, if that's the way you want it, just go without me tomorrow!" Just as Odd stands to leave, something causes him to freeze. It is Odette.
"Um, Hello Everyone," She says walking up. She holds out the presents to the group who eyes them curiously.
"What, for me?" Odd asks excitedly.
"For all of you," Odette grins. This is the first time any of them had seen her smile. Odd blushes. She hands each of them one of the delicately-wrapped gifts. "This is just a little something to say thank you for not letting me eat lunch alone on my first day."
There is an awkward pause. No one knows what to say. When they had planned on thanking her for the gift, she thanked them. Finally, someone broke the silence. "Wow!" Yumi says, tearing into the paper, "this is beautiful! These must have cost a fortune!"
Odette shakes her head, although she wouldn't dream of telling them how much the ingredients were worth. "Actually, I made them, myself."
The candy is beautiful. It is mostly chocolate that has been carved to resemble two roses. The stems, leaves, and even thorns were crafted from green and red hard candy that had been melted down and formed. The tiny roses glisten in the sun. They could easily have been picked from an enchanted forest in fairy tales.
There is another awkward silence, and Odd, who has just realized the wrapper contains food, is now tearing at his ribbon furiously to get it off. "You made this?" Yumi asks pointing at the candy in her hand.
Odette nods.
"This must have taken you hours."
Odette shakes her head again, "Thirty minutes." An awkward silence follows. "I'll show you how one day, if you like."
The group nods. Who wouldn't want to see it? "Oh!" Odd remembers, "We're going to the premiere of Zombies vs. Ninjas from the Underworld tomorrow after school! You wanna come?"
Though not completely thrilled by the name, Odette begins to say yes, but then she remembers. "I am sorry, but I have got detention tomorrow."
"Well, that's too bad," Odd says, disappointed.
Not knowing what else to talk about, Odette says, "I'll see you later," and heads back to her dorm, where she pulls out her journal and rips out the first page. On the new first page she writes, "Today is my new beginning, here at Kadic Academy."