Chapter 8
You can't start the next chapter of your life if you keep rereading the last one- Anonymous
Aubrey could barely contain her excitement throughout the duration of science class. After it was gym and then lunch, but more importantly it was when she and Jeremy would go to the factory together to work on her vehicle. Jeremy had already texted her several ideas he'd come up with the night before so she could pick out the basic qualities that she wanted.
"Geez Aubrey, it seems like someone had a little too much sugar." Ulrich whispered as he placed a hand on her knee to keep it from bouncing up and down. She smiled at him sheepishly with a slight blush.
"W-well I'm just really excited! Jeremy and I are going to the factory after this."
"You're excited about skipping class?"
"Yes!" She whisper yelled. looked over at the two students who smiled at her with innocent faces. She narrowed her eyes in warning.
Ulrich chuckled. "Before you know it you'll be skipping class left and right and it'll be more of a burden anyway. Especially with you know what."
"Mm-hmm" She mumbled back. She was already lost in her mind imagining what her vehicle would look like. What color would it be? Would it be a ground vehicle like Ulrich's or fly like Yumi's and Odd's? The possibilities were endless!
Ulrich looked back at her out of the corner of his eyes. While she was off in la-la-land had moved to the right side of the room leaving Aubrey the only one still staring at the board. He smiled into the hand that he was using to support the weight of his head.
Class couldn't end soon enough. Aubrey almost sprinted out of the room when the bell went off only being held back by Ulrich who seemed to take pleasure in torturing her for those few seconds. Jeremy cleared his throat.
"Aubrey, you ready to go?"
"Of course!" She yelled, ripping her arm out of Ulrich's grasp. (He'd loosened it so she could get out easier, but he'd let her keep thinking she did it with her own strength.) Both teens smiled at her enthusiasm.
"Then let's get going." Jeremy suggested. Aubrey nodded and together the two left the room.
"Bye! Have fun in gym class!" She yelled to Ulrich, Odd and Aelita with a wave. They waved back with smiles.
Aubrey was just so...Aubrey.
Aubrey was next to the super computer in a flash when the elevator doors opened. She signaled Jeremy to hurry up who rolled his eyes good naturedly and did so. Once he sat down he took the computer off sleep mode and booted up the program.
"So, did you decide on what you want it to look like?" He asked to make conversation. Aubrey nodded as she pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pocket.
"I have a design right here! We should probably make some adjustments but I really like the basic idea." The girl bit her lip. She hoped Jeremy would agree to make it. His eyes scanned over the paper rapidly as he took in every detail, what he could he keep and what would need to change, and finally looked up at her just as the program finished loading.
"I think it's really good actually. It seems pretty easy to control, but will you be able to take Aelita if you have to?"
"Umm, maybe if you make the bar a little longer and add one for the feet it would work? It might be difficult to navigate with two people, but I'm positive that we could make it work fine and then if I have to get off it'd still be easy for her to steer."
"That's a good point. You want to start with the top part?"
"Sure! I don't really care where, I just want to get it done and try it out."
Jeremy laughed. "Thought so. Anyway, what color would you like it?"
Aubrey tapped her chin. "How about red?"
"That could work. Is it okay if its more towards the orange side of the spectrum?"
The brunette blinked. "You mean if it's like red-orange?"
"Yes." Jeremy sighed.
"Oh! Okay, yeah I like that."
"Alright. I'll put that in." Jeremy murmured as he typed a code into the computer. Aubrey gasped when a small model of the vehicle appeared on the screen and the hologram that usually showed the Lyoko sectors. She grinned.
"Wow! That's so cool!"
"Isn't it? Anyway, I was thinking we could make it a little wider and maybe add a metal piece at the tip? That way if you need to kill monsters with it you'll have that. Just to warn you though, if we do put it on then the vehicle will probably get destroyed when you use it."
"That's fine. Better safe then sorry, right?"
"Right." The blonde agreed. He typed in another code changing the once red-orange tip to a steel like material.
"So now we just add the bars and that's it?"
"I'll have to make some adjustments to the aerodynamics of the top to make sure that it has maximum stability and velocity, but that's about it. After that I'll upload the program and it should pixilate in the mountain sector in about an hour once all the data has been transferred and realized. By then the others should be here so you can test it out."
Aubrey stared at him with a look of bewilderment. She blinked. "What?"
"I'm going to change a few things to make it fly better and faster, then make it appear on Lyoko which will take about an hour." He summarized.
"Oh! Why didn't you just say that?"
Jeremy pinched the bridge of his nose. "You know what? I'll just get started now. Since you have your backpack why don't you work on the algebra homework?"
"But its not due until last period tomorrow!"
Jeremy raised an eyebrow.
"Fine, but don't get annoyed if I ask you questions."
"Don't be surprised if I don't answer them because you haven't read the section of the book we were supposed to study." He shot back. Aubrey groaned but plopped down against the far wall and pulled her math book along with a clean sheet of paper out of her back pack. She thought about just doodling, but a look from Jeremy had her reconsidering. Sighing, she began her work.
"Jeremy, I finished!" Aubrey yelled happily as she sprung up from the ground. She rushed over to show Jeremy her completed paper who was working on Aelita's anit-virus while waiting for Aubrey's vehicle to load. His eyebrows shot up as he took the paper to check it; he'd honestly thought it would take her longer seeing as she had a C+ in the class and what not. As he came to the last problem he frowned.
"Aubrey, half of these are wrong."
"Yeah, but do they look right?"
"No, they're not even close."
"What are they off by? Tenths, ones, tens, hundreds?"
"You aren't even using the right formulas! How do you figure Pythagorean's Theorem applies to the sector of a circle at all?"
"But the other formula looked a lot more complicated and sectors look sort of like triangles!" Aubrey whined. "Besides, if they look right when the teacher scans over them she'll think I actually did the work!"
"She said she was going to collect them this time."
Aubrey grew pale. "W-well then she'll just assign me a tutor right?! You or Aelita could tutor me!"
"I'm tutoring Ulrich and Aelita's tutoring Odd. And before you get any ideas Yumi's to buys with all of her senior stuff."
"Th-then who would I get?"
"Probably Herb."
"How do I fix them?!" She asked quickly. Jeremy smirked in triumph as he scanned over the paper again.
"Looking at it, it seems as though you already know how to apply the formulas, so you just have to erase these problems and redo them plugging in the correct values. Can you do that?"
"Yeah." She Aubrey answered dejectedly. Just as she was about to slink back over to the wall to work on it again the elevator doors opened revealing Aelita, Odd and Ulrich. Yumi had schoolwork to do so she couldn't come.
"You're here!" Aubrey yelled as she sprinted over and glomped Ulrich. The teen chuckled with a small blush on his face and patted her head.
"Jeez Jeremy, what'd you do to her?" The taller brunette asked teasingly. Aubrey stepped back from him and pouted.
"He made me do math homework! I mean seriously, who does that?"
Jeremy frowned as the other three warriors burst into laughter. Aubrey's pouting grew larger. She was being serious!
"Oh Jeremy, how could you?" Odd cried out. He doubled over to laugh even more while Aelita and Ulrich were leaning against the walls. Aubrey's expression was so hilarious and she was dead serious about being upset. She should have known Einstein would make her do work, they didn't call him Einstein for nothing after all.
"Guys!" Aubrey yelled. Her face was beat red from embarrassment. Finally her friends stopped laughing and made their way over to the super computer. Odd tried to peak at the screen that showed Aubrey's vehicle but as soon as he did Jeremy closed the window.
"You guys can see it when you get to Lyoko. It should be uploaded by now."
Aelita smiled fondly at Aubrey who was cheering and tugging Odd and Ulrich with her to the elevator. She turned to Jeremy to ask if she could go too who nodded at her with a smile. She grinned back and rushed over to get inside before it closed.
Once they entered the scanner room Aubrey, Ulrich and Odd all stepped into scanners. Aubrey wasn't even scared this time because she was so excited to see her completed vehicle. In fact, the doors closing only made her that much more.
"Transfer Ulrich, Transfer Aubrey, Transfer Odd"
Aubrey bit her lip. This was it.
"Scanner Ulrich, Scanner Aubrey, Scanner Odd"
White light flooded her vision.
"Virtualization!"
The first thing Aubrey saw after pulling herself off the ground was her beautiful vehicle.
She and Jeremy had designed what looked similar to a hang glider with the red and orange glider color that was shaped into the normal triangle. It floated a few feet off the ground so that Aubrey could easily hold one of the two poles in order to launch herself. The first pole was for her hands while the second was to hold her feet.
It was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen.
"Wow Rabbit, so you went for a hang glider look, right?"
"Not hang glider Odd." Jeremy corrected as Aelita landed on Lyoko. "I call it the Overkite."
"Overkite." Odd repeated. He grinned. "That actually has a nice ring to it."
"Hey Aelita?" Aubrey called as she ran over to it with a goofy smile on her face. Ulrich and Odd were walking around the Overkite, mentally sizing it up to their own vehicles.
"Yeah?"
"You wanna go for the first run with me? You know, since you might have to ride it more often anyway?"
"Oh wow." Aelita whispered, feeling touched that the brunette would ask. "If you don't mind I would love to Aubrey, but how does it work?"
"Easy. Okay, so you come here and just get into position since I'll launch us off. Hold onto the first bar so your kind of draped over it and use the second to rest your feet on. Listen closely Odd, Ulrich, because your next!"
The two boys nodded as Aelita got on the new vehicle. It was a bit awkward to try and get on at first but she soon found herself in a comfortable position. It weird that she was staring at the ground though, staring at the ground usually meant crashing or riding with Odd while he was in 'crazy stunt' mode.
"Okay Aubrey, what's next?"
"Next I'll grab this top bar and jump. You ready?"
"Ready."
"Okay, here goes!" Aubrey grabbed onto the first bar and began to run forward. After moving a good few feet she pushed off the ground, sprung up into the air and quickly shifted her position. Before they knew it the two girls were gliding around the mountain sector with ease. Both of them were laughing with joy. Wind was rushing past their faces and they were quick to discover that by leaning certain ways they could speed up, slow down and turn the Overkite.
"Oh my god! Aubrey, this is so much fun! Jeremy, this design is amazing!" Aelita exclaimed. Aubrey nudged her and began to lean left so she did as well. They were almost at a ninety-degree angle as they made the sharp turn which was really more fun then it was scary. If Aubrey reached out her arm she could touch the ground which in her opinion made it much more thrilling.
"HEY PRINCESS, HURRY UP! I WANT A TURN TOO!" Odd yelled from the ground. Aelita and Aubrey giggled but agreed to fly back down. At the same time the two leaned forward which sent them back towards the ground. Aubrey slipped her feet off the back bar and dug them into the surface of the purple sector acting as a break. Once the vehicle came to a full stop she helped Aelita off.
"I think I have a new favorite vehicle." The pinkette said as she walked back over to Odd and Ulrich. Apparently the two had already talked about who was going next because Odd ran forward and got on like he'd seen Aelita do.
"Alright Rabbit, show me what you've got." He challenged. Aubrey smirked back and launched into the air.
"WOO-HOO! THIS IS-" Aubrey grinned triumphantly at Odd. "GREAT BUT NOT AS GOOD AS THE OVERBOARD." Odd improvised, shocked at what he'd been about to say.
Odd and Aubrey's run was more... daring to say the least. Together they'd done several flips and sharp turns and ended it by nose diving towards the ground only to straighten out at the last second and go back to Ulrich and Aelita. Then it was Ulrich's turn.
"Hold on tight." Aubrey warned. She hadn't really given Ulrich time to protest before leaping in the air, but making sure not to go to high as she knew he got bad vertigo from heights. He'd told her so on their way back to class the morning they'd gone out for a walk. She in turn admitted that she had thalassophobia, a fear of oceans, seas and other large bodies of water. This was why she was secretly a lot more scared of the digital sea then the others but she trusted in Jeremy's ability to make a vehicle that wouldn't be destroyed over water. Despite their fears the two teens still had a lot of fun.
"Okay, so around that rock, under the pathway, back up, small flip and then a sharp turn around Odd and Aelita. What do you say?" Aubrey proposed, wanting to test out the true limits of the overkite. Ulrich nodded.
"Let's do it."
The two smiled at each other and then leaned forward for more momentum, easily swerving around the large rock. Then they dove back under the narrow pathway and flew upside down for a moment before shooting up around fifteen feet in the air and setting a course towards Odd and Aelita. All four laughed when they made the sharp turn practically sideways and then stopped in front of them as Aubrey dug her heels into the ground. She'd gotten better at stopping so the vehicle stopped almost immediately allow Ulrich to get off quickly and easily just like Aelita would eventually have to do.
"Okay, my bike may be awesome, fast and cool, but that kite is extremely fun to ride."
"Agreed. Cute, fun and lethal." Aelita added.
"So just like you Rabbit!" Odd finished. Aubrey grinned at all of them.
"Thanks guys! I really like it too. Oh, and before I forget THANK YOU JEREMY! YOU'RE THE BEST!"
"You're welcome." Jeremy answered, laughter evident in his voice. "I just wish Yumi was here to see it."
"Speaking of her and thinking of school we should probably get back. Our free block is up and we still have one more class before the end of the day." Ulrich sighed. Aubrey frowned.
"That sucks, but I guess you're right."
"He is, I'm bringing you all back to the factory now. Prepare for devirtualization."
"Aye aye Einstein!"
"So how did it go?" Yumi asked. All of the Lyoko warriors were now hanging out in Aubrey's room as the girl had invited them since they'd never seen it before.
"It went amazing! My vehicle is called the Overkite." She would never get tired of saying that. "Hey Jeremy, can you pull it up on your laptop?" Aubrey asked. Jeremy nodded, and while he did that Aubrey went back to her math problems. Jeremy had taken it upon himself to make sure she actually did all of this time after trying to cheat the teacher out of work on the last. Of course at first she'd complained, but in the end she gave in to Jeremy's evil stare. Her self-conscious was telling her she should do it anyway.
"Wow, that looks really good! Isn't it a bit hard to ride thought, especially with Aelita?"
"Not at all." Aelita amended. "It's actually extremely fun. Plus you'd be surprised by how easy it is for two people to steer."
"Huh, I guess I'll just have to try it sometime."
"Of course you will!" Aubrey exclaimed as she passed Jeremy her homework. He scanned over it quickly, finding fault in not a single problem. He'd smiled at Aubrey when he handed it back who grinned at him in return.
"You know Aubrey, you're actually pretty smart if you just apply yourself." He complimented. Aubrey blushed lightly.
"Y-yeah well, I'm more comfortable with the lazy life so..."
"That's not going to work so well in college you know."
"I know. Trust me, my dad tells me that all the time. You actually remind me of him a bit, you know with the smarts and all. My moms more like me in the academic department. She always jokes that I got her brain and my dad's beauty."
"Can we not talk about college?" Yumi asked. "I'm colleged out for the day and I don't even go yet."
"No problem Yumi, we should just watch a movie instead! We can watch it on Jeremy's computer!" Odd suggested. The blonde frowned.
"No you most certainly cannot! I have all my important Lyoko files on here Odd, just one bug could ruin everything."
"Whoa, chill Einstein I was joking. I didn't think you'd let us anyway."
"Umm... If you want to watch a movie I have Netflix on my laptop." Aubrey suggested timidly. "I can put in on my desk and we can all sit on my bed."
"That sounds like a great idea, but is there enough room?" Ulrich asked. He, Aubrey and Odd were all seated on her bed while Aelita got computer chair privilege and Yumi and Jeremy sat on the floor. Aubrey's eyes widened.
"Oh! You don't have to worry about that. The school let me bring my own bed since I'm not exactly comfortable with theirs and I just so happen to have a trundle bed!"
"What's that?" Odd asked confused. Aubrey smiled while shooing them off the bed. Then, she lifted up her blanket and pulled the seconds mattress out from under the first. Odd was surprised when she then moved Yumi and Jeremy away from the door, pushed the lower mattress against it and lifted up a small rod that made it pop up to the same height as the first bed. The beds were now arranged in an "L" shape blocking half of the room (including the door.) Aubrey then got Ulrich to help her slant her desk in the corner so everyone would be able to see the laptop and finished by pulling out extra blankets from her closet.
"There! Now everyone can fit and we can have a home movie night. It's only four o'clock anyway."
"I have to be home by six-thirty but I should be good for one movie." Yumi said as she climbed on the extra bed. Jeremy and Aelita settled down next to her while Odd and Ulrich climbed back on Aubrey's bed. The girl herself went to pick a movie.
"What do you guys wanna watch?" She asked. They all shrugged. Sighing, Aubrey began to scroll through movies. Looks like she would have to do this herself.
"Okay, let's just watch Transformers. I'm interested in seeing the french dub anyway." She decided. Nobody argued and soon everyone was settled into their seats. Aubrey slid into the edge of her bed near the pillows and next to Ulrich.
Now if she was honest, Aubrey was a movie person. She loved going to the cinema or sitting at home on her laptop and watch movies even if it was by herself. Actually she often did. However, as she was sitting there and watching a classic movie in a dub with five of the best friends she'd ever had she was sure she'd never enjoyed a film more. She and Ulrich were sharing a bag of sour patch kids, Odd was adding in sarcastic comments and questions were he saw fit only to be shushed by Yumi and his other laughing friends, Aelita was absorbed in all the special effects that had been added and even Jeremy had put down his laptop to watch. They were all snuggled together on the two beds comfortably enjoying downtime with some of their favorite people. Aubrey had never felt closer to a group of friends before.
When the movie ended Yumi excused herself to head home (Odd and Ulrich had to push the bed out of the way) and half an hour later they all went down to dinner. Odd had his usual three helpings and Jeremy was back on the laptop, but they'd gotten him to promise to put it down again in favor of watching Transformers 2. Aubrey thought the dub was kind of funny since she knew almost all the lines by heart but chose not to say anything.
After Transformers 2 the guys went back to their rooms while Aelita and Aubrey worked together to finish homework. It was around ten by the time they'd finally gotten it down. Seeing as Aelita was about to pass out Aubrey offered her homage on the trundle bed which they'd push to know be side by side with Aubrey's bed.
"You sure?" Aelita asked with a yawn. Aubrey nodded tiredly.
"Yeah, it's fine. I'm sure Jim won't come to check on us anyway and even if he does it isn't that big of a deal. I doubt we'd get detention." Aubrey answered as she crawled under her covers. Her pink haired friend silently slipped under the extra blankets of the trundle bed as her answer. Aubrey smiled as she turned off the lights.
As she was lying in bed drifting off Aubrey was surprised when she realized that for the first time in years she'd gone an entire day without haunting herself with the memories of Simon and she didn't feel guilty about it. Whether they realized it or not her knew friends were helping her to finally move on from Simon's death. No, she'd never forget about him or what she'd done, but she was finally getting towards that stage where she could think of him and smile without feeling a pang in her heart or tears on her cheeks.
'Big Brother, if you could see me now, would you be proud?'
A/N: BAMM! Another new chapter. For those of you who feel like their isn't much of a plot don't worry, this is just the calm before the storm. Aubrey's about to get a taste of what X.A.N.A can really do and how hard life as a Lyoko warrior is. I'll also be writing in some other reoccurring favorites soon such as Sissy, Herb, Nicholas, Yolanda and more. Again, if you have any X.A.N.A plots please let me know because I'd love to add your ideas in (and give you credit of course.) I know this chapter is really fluffy but I also found it necessary to not only strengthen the bond between Jeremy and Aubrey but all of them and really incorporate Aubrey into the tight group of long time friends. It isn't as easy as people make it seem, I'd know.
As a preview for what's coming, expect more fights, more X.A.N.A. attacks, more Lyoko, more funny excuses and lies and especially more romance. Spring is coming and love is about to bloom! As always please review!
P.S. It's about fall right now at Kadic academy at the beginning of the year and for those of you who didn't catch it, Yumi is now a senior and everyone else juniors.