Disclaimer: Same as always.

Chapter 6: Tell me the secret

Morning came with a cafeteria full of chattering students.

Suddenly Sissi didn't seem so certain of the direction her feet were carrying her. She strolled right past her usual table ignoring the comments of her two 'cronies', at least part of her was set on her decision… Today was the day she'd figure out just where the group was always going. Even if she had to beat it out of their shortest member.

Speaking of that certain member, he was staring rather dejected at his tray of food. Something the others didn't seem to notice in their early morning dazes. If Sissi hadn't taken a cold shower that morning she probably wouldn't have noticed either. In a moment the strange boy seemed to recover a huge smile breaking across his face as he reached for his fork.

Moron. All he ever thought about was food. How could anyone even eat that much?

She stopped at the end of their table and had to cough just to get their attention. What was with this bunch?

The pink haired girl was the one to notice first. Aelita was her name if Sissi remembered correctly, she was Odd's cousin or something… in all honesty Sissi didn't really care. The girl was just another nerd like the boy sitting next to her-- currently bent over his laptop.

As Aelita looked in her direction though that seemed to bring the nearby Ulrich to reality, he just snorted with annoyance though and continued to stare at the table in front of him. Sissi wasn't very happy about this, how could that table be more interesting to look at then her?!

She coughed again and Ulrich looked up with a scowl. "Odd!" He snapped at his roommate and there was a clatter of silverware as the fork that was previously in Odd's hand fell onto his tray. Sissi glared at the boy as he sat up straighter, appearing startled by the mentioning of his name.

Something seemed slight amiss with him but Sissi couldn't quite put her finger on it.

He didn't look as exhausted as the others, in fact he had too much energy now that he was distracted from his food. He kept shifting back and forth in his seat causing Sissi to narrow her eyes further.

What was with him? Why was he looking at her like that? Both his green and purple eye seemed equally hazy, as if he wasn't even looking at her at all but right past her.

"I need to talk to you."

He smirked, managing to irritate her further but at least now he seemed more focused. "What about Sissi dear?"

She hoped her face didn't get stuck all angry like this, it probably wasn't very appealing. She glanced at the rest of the group which she could tell were listening intently even if they weren't looking her way. "I don't want to talk about it here." She snapped at him causing him to quirk a brow at her.

"What are you talking about?…" She was not crazy!

"Get up Odd."

"But I thought you wanted to hang out with-"

Ulrich. Why… yes, yes she did but not right now. "Odd!" He stopped talking immediately, at least able to take a hint. "Get up." And follow and order even if it was just because he was stunned. He seemed disappointed to leave his breakfast though as she lead him out of the Cafeteria.

"Okay. What?"

She ignored him because she just realized once more how cold it was outside. Her jacket might have been fashionable and looked amazing on her but even so it was rather thin and was doing little to keep out the biting wind. She just kept walking deeper into the nearby woods to keep her mind off it.

"Sissi. First period is going to start soon and I'm still really hungry."

Whiner.

Sissi stopped walking and turned to face him. What was with that purple hoodie of his? It was far to big for his scrawny little body but it sure did look warm. Even his fingers must be warm beneath those long sleeves. Suddenly she was so jealous of his choice of clothing for this weather, she shivered.

"Take off your jacket." She demanded bluntly.

"Oh Sissi dear, I had no idea you were like that."

She really wanted to slap the arrogant boy for the assumption he was making but restrained herself. Yes that was a miracle in itself. "Give me your jacket scrawny I'm cold!" He opened his mouth to defend his height but Sissi didn't have time for that. "The sooner you hand over your jacket the sooner you can go back to gorging yourself with food."

His smile became a little less full as he moved to pull his hoodie off.

Sissi ripped it out of his hands and yanked it on but she had to keep some of her dignity. Even as warmth instantly filled her, she forced disgust onto her face. "Ew, it smells like you." Which honestly wasn't the best smell in the world but not anything worth gagging over, it was hardly even noticeable.

She glanced at him, expecting him to retort but he just bit his bottom lip. She noticed him visibly shiver and rub his hands over the thin material covering his arms. Even looking for just a second she caught a hint of white between where the base of his fingers met his sleeves.

"I want to know where you went yesterday after you ran off." She edged closer to him causing him to back up suddenly appearing rather alarmed. Then he smiled nervously as she backed him up against the trunk of a tree.

"I went to the gym?"

He was lying.

"Why'd you just ask me what you were doing?" Sissi smiled slyly leaning in closer her hands leaning at either side of him, preventing him from darting away and avoiding the situation like the bunch of them always managed to do. She almost pulled back though when she noticed the slight blush creeping across the Odd's cheeks-- at least until she decided it was because of the cold. After all she had stole his jacket.

Suddenly he had ducked under her arms and almost got away before she reached out and grabbed his hand yanking him backwards. She wasn't expecting the sharp cry that escaped him and ended up letting him go. She probably should of said something but instead just watched him rush off-- shock evident on her face.

Sissi was a whack, a nutcase, a kook… and Odd wasn't even sure if that last one was a real word but she was one nevertheless.

Oh, yes. Sissi was certainly crazy, Odd had no doubts. She dragged him away from food just to steal his jacket: that was whack. She pinned him against a tree just to try and force him to tell her the secret, she looked so pretty in his jacket-

He smashed his forehead against the desk causing his roommate to stare at him.

- that was nuts.

Then she had to go in a try and stop him and horribly remind him of his bandaged palms by grabbing one: that was just kooky, painful too. He remember her shocked expression, she couldn't have known she would have hurt him, not that knowing would've changed anything. Sissi would probably enjoy hurting him.

"Are you okay?" Holy- Ulrich was talking to him again and on friendly terms too. Odd picked up his head and looked toward the front of the class where Ms. Hertz was still in the middle of her long lecture about… scientific stuff? Heck if Odd knew what she was going on about-- he wasn't Jeremie after all.

Recalling that Ulrich had asked him a question he decided to change the subject. "How's your ankle?"

"It's great, a nice purple color. I'm sure you'd love it." Ulrich whispered back sarcastically causing Odd to smirk in amusement continuing to watch their teacher's demonstration without paying attention as his roommate took notes on the lesson(or at least pretended to). "But seriously Odd, shouldn't you be more concerned about your hands? Yolanda said it would take at least a week for them to completely heal."

Odd shifted in his seat and laughed as quietly as he could. "No. That just means I got a week's pass of taunting Jimbo without him forcing me to run ten laps on my hands." Of course, he wasn't completely serious about this but the ugly rope burns on his hands did get him out of gym class.

Neither Ulrich or him would even be hurt if they weren't cut down to using return trips so scarcely. They were stuck at the factory late into the evening and only got a chance to return for a quick dinner and to visit the infirmary. After that they had to sneak past Jim and meet Jeremie back at the factory to help with some research on Lyoko.

They were up late into the night.

Odd didn't like their priorities one bit.

"So what happened to your jacket?"

Odd didn't like this change of subject either. "Oh, Sissi took it." He didn't know if he should be upset at the following silence or relieved. This meant Ulrich didn't like his answer but it also meant he wasn't going to argue with him about his choice in girlfriends.

Not that Sissi and him were really together.

Odd was betting Ulrich didn't want to know why Sissi dragged him away from breakfast that morning. He probably had all this nasty and twisted thoughts in his head already. Sissi and him… Odd shivered. What had he been thinking?

It was during lunch before Sissi approached him again and he ended up sneezing on her when she grabbed his arm and forceful dragged him away from his friends and food. He could of resisted if he really wanted to but was curious about what this was all about.

Dumb curiosity…

She appeared to be disgusted and yelled something about him getting his snot on her. Why did that give him such a mad urge to rub snot all over her? Right, cause it would be funny.

"I need to go to the infirmary." She said suddenly. "That food didn't agree with me."

Should Odd have pointed out that lunch was still going on and the food couldn't have possibly effected her yet? No, he was to busy staring at her in his purple hoodie. It wasn't a bad color on her…

Curse his love of the color it was screwing with his mind. When was she going to give it back? It was freezing outside. Speaking of which why was it so cold anyways?! Was it because of the rain?

He stood back at the doorway as Sissi continued in. "Yolanda, there's something wrong with Odd's hands."

Kadic's nurse turned around at the two. "I know that Elisabeth. I already tended to him yesterday."

"My name's Sissi!"

Yolanda just ignored her and Odd couldn't help but smirk. "Speaking of which I should probably change those bandages." Crap. Odd could tell you that 'rope burns' were pretty painful but he wasn't about to. He already accidentally showed as much when Sissi grabbed his hand earlier and wasn't partial to do so again.

Retarded Xana. Those wired cords ripped right into Odd's palms, it was no where near as painful as getting sliced open by a rake --he winced-- that had numbed so quickly in that instant when his body had gone into shock. That pain hadn't been a constant throb like this, just a sharp agonizing… okay never mind. That was worse and he was feeling nauseous just thinking about it.

He didn't know when he had sat down, or when Yolanda had redressed his palms. Nor did he recall when Sissi had made that disturbed face. It almost made him laugh but he really did feel sick rather suddenly so didn't.

He must of looked as much since Yolanda's hand was on his forehead. "You have a slight fever, nothing serious but it looks like the cold weather is getting to you. You probably should of worn something warmer than what you have on now."

Sissi shuffled her feet in a guilty manner. Sissi was guilty! Odd wanted to laugh out loud.

"You should get some rest."

A few seconds later the two of them were headed toward his dorm. Odd happily wearing his hoodie once more even if it did smell like Sissi, it wasn't bad. "You should get to class." She huffed and stormed off as soon as he said this leaving him in front of his dorm room.

What was with that girl? He smiled.

Oh great. He was smiling while thinking about Sissi and she wasn't even embarrassed or angry. Oh yeah, he really must be sick. Shaking his head he closed the door behind him and took a few steps toward his bed, taking little notice as Kiwi picked up his head to look at him from Ulrich's pillow.

He thought he felt alright now but then why was the floor rushing up to greet him?

They had just finished lunch…

They had just been clearing their trays…

Sissi had just been walking over…

When the beeping started and they looked at one another expectantly. Xana.

Ulrich exited the group. "I'll get Odd."