9: An October of opportunities
JEREMIE
It was the middle of October and Oktoberfest had come and gone. Sadly, Jeremie and the others were all underage, and thus couldn't enjoy the German festivity of delectable sausages, sauerkraut and the wonderful bitter beverage that is beer.
It was also the end of the world. Or in a more optimistic view, it was a miracle at Kadic Academy.
Jeremie Belpois had joined an extra-curricular activity, at Aelita's persuasion. Usually, working on the supercomputer and keeping up with their academics kept the two of them – and the rest of Team LYOKO for that matter – too occupied to sign up for many school activities.
However, the Senior Robotics club took place every Friday afternoon, and was flexible; you didn't have to attend every single session to earn participation credits. And this year, they were working on designing an underwater robot as part of an engineering competition next spring. Truly exciting stuff for hands-on students like Jeremie. He was probably the go-to person when it came to automation and mechanics, in addition to computer technology. He did take first place in the science fair last year, when his robot defeated Herb's in an epic robo-brawl.
It also looked good on one's resume, Yumi had remarked. After all, he would have to start applying to various post-secondary institutions a year from now; and Jeremie knew that having blank spaces on extra-curricular involvement did not leave too good of an impression, despite his high marks.
Odd then suggested another incentive for Jeremie with a wink and a nudge – it indirectly gave him a greater opportunity to be around Aelita.
Not that he was interested in her in any way. That was simply absurd. Blasphemy.
Since XANA's last attack and having modified all of the LYOKO warrior avatars, Jeremie found himself spending less and less time in the factory with Aelita. In fact, he seldom talked to her, even in class. Sometimes, he took his laptop and homework assignments to the library, hoping that Aelita would show up. But lately, he rarely saw his pink-haired friend.
Perhaps she was spending more time with Bryan. Jeremie didn't know why, but he felt a slight resentment towards him. While he consistently reminded himself that Aelita was his companion, after all the time they spent together last year. Besides, Bryan probably had his own special someone back in Canada, he still felt a bit uncomfortable every time Bryan managed to make her smile or laugh.
Sure, Jeremie got along pretty well with him; they would often discuss recent projects and the various features of the supercomputer. While Bryan knew much more about the historical aspects, Jeremie displayed his superiority regarding the technical components, such as programming. Although Jeremie wouldn't admit it, he liked being in command of the situation – being the one who dictated the conversation. It was his style of leadership.
Clearly, the Senior Robotics Club was a way to reaffirm his and Aelita's relationship. And Bryan never seemed to be around on Friday afternoons…
Jeremie could picture himself winning the competition in his mind. Aelita was by his side, hand in hand, beaming. He might even get another kiss. Only this time, his goal was not to completely freeze up from shock.
BRYAN
Meanwhile, Bryan had successfully adjusted to life at Kadic. It was awkward at the beginning though, this was his first time at a boarding school, where he stayed on campus 24/7. Back in Canada, it was a day school system: classes from 9 to 3 then go home.
In addition, there were many students whispering behind his back about his blue hair and whether or not it was even genetically possible, or whether he was just another hardcore anime fan who dyed his hair like Marge Simpson. Of course, he was used to such banter from his old school and so it didn't bother him too much.
Aelita's pink hair also got tossed into the conversation. Some even joked that it would not be long before Kadic got a student with green or even purple hair. Nothing like a little diversity.
Bryan had also signed up for the indoor tennis club, thanks to his fellow Kadic noob buddy Catherine possessing a spare racket. They still kept in touch, albeit less frequently as Catherine spent more time with the senior students, while Bryan was hanging out with Aelita, Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich and Yumi.
Indeed, Bryan 'hands over feet' Green was adept in hand and racket sports, including hockey (obviously), baseball and volleyball. Nevertheless, he still struck chords with Ulrich – it turned out that Bryan was a huge fan of Manchester United FC. Naturally, the footy chat would return to 1999, in which United defeated Ulrich's favourite club, Bayern Munich in the most dramatic fashion to win the Champions League. By this point, Ulrich would usually try to change the subject.
Furthermore, academics proved to be a non-issue. Bryan quickly got up to speed on each of his courses, thanks to Aelita. The two often went to a small, empty classroom after school, where Aelita would review everything he missed the past month.
While he was not to finish his assignments or in-class evaluations (it was usually Jeremie or Nicholas, who had given up), he still managed to perform surprisingly well.
This left plenty of time to chat with Aelita after each of their 'tutorials'.
Recently, she invited Bryan to join the Robotics Club with her and Jeremie. The boy laughed and shook his head, saying that he wasn't very good or interested in automation and that he'd probably end up building something that would wreak havoc on mankind.
On the other hand, Bryan was surprised at Aelita's innocent nature. After all, she had been trapped on LYOKO for quite a while, and had only started last year to 'get with the times'. And it was kind of cute to see Aelita's blank expression or look of amazement whenever they talked about general pop culture.
AELITA
"Before today's lab, I'm going to hand back your tests from last week. I'll also give back your geography presentation marks at the end of the day," said Mrs. Hertz.
Every other Wednesday was usually a laboratory session, which gave students a chance socialize and be more relaxed midway through the week. It also provided an ample time of five days in which to write up a formal lab report to be submitted the following Monday.
Bryan had asked Aelita whether she wanted to be lab buddies after she got her test back. The girl turned to Jeremie, her usual lab partner, who gave a shrug of indifference.
Suit yourself.
Even though the two were always the first to finish, and earned the highest marks, it was Jeremie who seemed to do most of the work. In addition, they didn't talk much either during the lab; they just worked silently on their objectives. And Aelita had a feeling that Jeremie hadn't quite forgiven her completely after that one time where she added to much alcohol during a heats of combustion experiment.
She turned back to Bryan and smiled.
"Sure."
"Mr. Green," Mrs. Hertz called out. Bryan got up nervously. It seemed that like Ulrich, he seemed to get post-evaluation jitters. He went up to the front of the room and took his paper, then received a smile from the teacher.
As Bryan went back to his seat, Odd flashed him a thumbs-up while Ulrich was running out of nails to chew on as his name was called up after.
"How'd you do?" asked Aelita. Bryan showed her his quiz.
Near-perfect. Well, he had gotten the same mark as her: 48/50. Before, it was usually Aelita, Herb, Jeremie or Melanie who possessed the top test grades in the class; they were even dubbed the 'Fantastic Four.'
She pointed to the last question on his paper; there was a red circle was scrawled over it with the comment 'watch out!'. Bryan added instead of subtracting, despite having written a minus sign in his answer.
Bryan would've gotten perfect, if he remembered how to do basic elementary math.
"You know, I'm not sure if I feel confident working with a partner who mixes up adding and subtracting. What if you pour too much acid to our solution?" she teased.
Bryan responded by sticking his tongue out at Aelita. She laughed and mimicked his gesture.
"A-hem." Mrs. Hertz had finished handing back the tests and was now looking at Bryan and Aelita with her customary stern expression.
"Are you two done?" she asked politely. Both of them turned pink and nodded some students started to snicker.
"Good. Now onto today's experiment: acid and base titration…"
Well, at least it didn't involve the 'c-word': combustion. Aelita sighed as Mrs. Hertz started to explain the procedures for the lab. Not wanting Mrs. Hertz to catch them talking again, Bryan started scribbling something on the side of Aelita's notebook. Curious, she looked down.
Don't worry too much. Won't add 2 much acid to sol'n. Guaranteed.
Aelita grinned, before replying with a message of her own.
How so?
Bryan finished copying down the instructions Mrs. Hertz wrote on the chalkboard. Aelita only then noticed that he was left-handed.
Duh. I get to use a calculator. Can't go wrong there.
She raised her eyebrows at such an obvious statement, and playfully punched Bryan's left shoulder. Keeping with the renowned Canadian tradition of peaceful conflict resolution, Bryan didn't respond with senseless and ineffective physical violence. Instead, he wrote some more on Aelita's paper.
Hey, stop! I need this left arm of mine to show off my awesome penmanship skills!
Indeed, his handwriting was quite legible and straight. It might even be considered as a custom computer font in the future. In other words, he wrote like a girl.
And unfortunately, Bryan's request for a ceasefire was subsequently ignored, as Aelita lightly jabbed at his shoulder again.
So, he poked the side of Aelita's tummy, which caused her to jerk up slightly. She narrowed her eyes and scrunched up her nose. And yet, the smile remained on her face as she poked him back. This proved that sometimes, even the most mature and intellectual high school students still tended to act like little children.
ODD
Team LYOKO was doing their homework together in the library for the first time in a month. Surprisingly, it was all Jeremie's idea – the one who always insisted on working independently.
When Ulrich asked why the sudden change in behaviour, concerned that his friend was high on an illicit substance, Jeremie merely shrugged him off and said that he didn't have anything better to do anyways.
True, he hadn't visited the factory in nearly two weeks. Strangely enough, XANA had not launched an attack since Bryan's arrival to Kadic. While Odd interpreted this lull as XANA being fearful of Bryan's prowess on LYOKO, the others knew that it wouldn't be long before they made their way back into the Scanners…
Furthermore, Aelita, Jeremie, Odd and Ulrich had received their marks from their geography presentations. But only Odd was complaining.
"Those Wikipedia bastards…" he muttered.
"Cheer up, Odd. You'll do better next time once you realize that Wikipedia is an illegitimate referencing source."
"Translate that for us won't you, Aelita?"
"Sure. Don't use Wikipedia for research projects."
"Well, Odd. You know who to go to for help on the next geography assignment," said Ulrich with a flashy smile.
Yumi chuckled, but rolled her eyes at the same time. Ulrich received bragging rights for earning the highest mark in the class for his geography project. No, an AWESOME! geography project, according to her friend.
"Hey Bryan," said Catherine as she walked by with an armful of novels.
Odd's jaw dropped.
"Oh, hi Catherine. What brings you to literature heaven?"
"Nothing much. Just signing out some books and checking whether they had the new Crispin novel."
"Well, I'm sure it's here somewhere," blurted Odd.
Catherine laughed, before looking back to Bryan. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"
"Uh, right. Over here is Ulrich, Yumi – you know, she's in your class – Jeremie, Aelita and Odyssey. I mean O –"
"Odd. Just Odd," said Odd, followed by a quick glare at Bryan.
"Well, it's real nice meeting you all. I guess I'll leave you guys alone to do your homework then. And, I'll see you at tennis practice tomorrow?" she said to Bryan.
"Definitely," the boy nodded.
"Alright. Catch you guys later." And with that, Catherine disappeared behind another shelve of books.
Yumi turned her head to find Odd's eyes still fixated at the direction Catherine was headed. She nudged Ulrich, and they both started to snicker. It was when Aelita, Bryan and Jeremie started to chortle as well, that they got Odd's attention.
"What?"
"Oh…just…what book was she looking for again?" Ulrich sniggered.
"Very funny, Ulrich."
"Looks like someone's developed a crush in less than a minute," Jeremie mumbled as he was reading a book on photovoltaic cells.
"Well, she's not bad. Cheerful. Beautif…hey Bryan, why didn't you ever tell us you were friends with a goddess?"
"Huh? Goddess? Oh, I…I don't...uh…"
"Odd, I hate to break it to you. But I believe she's already seeing someone. I mean, right from the first day she came to our class, all the guys were head over heels for her."
"Really?" Odd felt a part of himself deflate. Yumi nodded.
"What's about Samantha? Anything going on between the two of you?" asked Jeremie.
Samantha Knight. Fellow classmate, and considered to be Odd's girlfriend in waiting by Team LYOKO.
"Well…I don't know. I haven't seen her a lot lately, you know with all this homework. And we don't really have the same courses outside of the core subjects."
Ulrich looked down at his watch. It was a quarter to six.
"Sorry guys, but me and Yumi have to go practice Pencak Silat now," he said as he closed his books.
"Pencak Silat? Is that some kind of martial arts?" inquired an interested Bryan.
"Huh? Yeah. It's Indonesian. You're welcome to come with us. It's usually just only me and Ulrich. Jim shows up from time to time though."
"Hmm. Sure. Should be fun," said Bryan as he too started to pack his belongings.
"Alright, we'll see you guys at dinner then," said Ulrich.
"Fine. Take good care of Bryan for us," replied Aelita with a teasing smile. Bryan responded with his usual tongue sticking tactic, before he went to follow Ulrich and Yumi.
ODD
The boy with gravity-defying hair was surprisingly quiet throughout the rest of the study session with Aelita and Jeremie. He only opened his mouth when he had a question pertaining to the homework.
He wasn't even fully focused on his homework. The image of Catherine was still etched in his mind.
She was very likely the most gorgeous looking person he had ever laid eyes on; except for maybe himself, and with no offense to Aelita or Yumi. Sure, those two were pretty hot, but Catherine; she was definitely on another level…
She may not have been wearing the tightest clothing that looked as if it was actually directly latched onto skin, but the curves on her chest definitely stood out.
Of course, it wasn't only her physical features…
Catherine sounded like an extremely fun and cheerful person; one that barely ever got annoyed or frustrated. The way she laughed and smiled, it just melted his insides.
She had to be the world's most powerful anti-depressant.
And so, he made up his mind, and tasked himself with a new mission.
The Halloween dance was coming up soon. Ignoring what Yumi said about Catherine being taken, Odd started to come up with ways of getting closer to Catherine.
Maybe this time, he had really found 'the one'.
AELITA
"They should really serve coffee in the morning," muttered Ulrich as he yawned. He was really looking forward to getting a good night's sleep tonight after staying up late to finish his English paper. After all, it was Friday – sleeping in tomorrow without getting into trouble was now possible.
"Now now, Ulrich. We all know – well, I'll tell you later Bryan – about the last time you had caffeine in the early hours," said Odd.
Aelita, Bryan, Odd and Ulrich were having breakfast at their usual table near the corner of the cafeteria, close to the wide bay windows.
Jeremie was absent once again. He usually either skipped breakfast altogether – and was reprimanded by Aelita for this – or came into class with a granola bar and a carton of milk.
"Yeah, as I far as I could remember, you were unable to stop talking all morning," came Yumi's voice as she sat down on the corner seat beside Ulrich. All she had was a shiny red apple; she had already eaten a traditional Japanese breakfast back home.
"Ha ha. Very funny, Yumi," the boy with low caffeine tolerance replied.
"Besides, that stuff is yucky. What you need is a small glass of grapefruit juice," said Aelita, motioning to her own glass of ruby-red liquid.
"Hey, Mrs. Einstein."
Aelita looked up.
It was Sissy, with Herb and Nicholas standing on either side of her. Ruining numerous morning breakfasts with their unwelcome presence since 2004.
"Oh great, what do you want now?"
"How nice of you Yumi, shooting down the messenger. I just came by to say that my father wants to see you in his office immediately," said Sissi, pointing a finger at Aelita.
Silence descended over the entire table. Apart from an adolescent Mother Teresa, Aelita was possibly the last person you'd expect to get into trouble or have anything to do with the words 'go to the principal's office.'
"The principal wants to see Aelita?"
"Yes, Bryan. God, and I thought Nicholas was the only one as thick as a troll. Apparently, Canadians are slow on the uptake as well."
"Am not," Bryan and Nicholas protested. She ignored them both.
Aelita looked down, trying to think of possible reasons as to why Principal Delmas wanted to see her. What on earth could she have done?
That's when a she arrived at a startling conclusion: what if he's found out about my true identity? Indeed, forging your surname and admission into any educational institution was a serious offense.
"You must be in reeeeal big trouble. I mean, classes haven't even started yet," Sissi smirked as she blew a kiss to Ulrich, who responded with a face of absolute disgust. Yumi looked semi-livid, which meant that if violent actions were tolerated in France's education curriculum, Sissi would be crawling away half-dead.
Aelita slowly started to get up, trembling slightly.
Odd started moving his lips, but it was hard to discern what he was trying to say thanks to a mouth full of scrambled eggs and bacon.
"I think…" Ulrich started, "what Odd's trying to say is…'I'm sure everything'll be fine, Princess.'" Odd gave a thumbs up as if to say I couldn't have said it better myself.
"It's probably some small thing. Forget about Sissi."
"Yeah, nothing to worry about. If Jeremie were here, he'd provide you with a good old-fashioned statistic," added Bryan, nodding.
Yumi chuckled. "Probably something along the lines of '98.7 percent of students sent to see the principal do not actually receive detention'. Or something like that."
Aelita smiled. "Alright. Thanks you guys."
She stepped into the head office to find Principal Delmas's door slightly ajar. The head secretary looked up.
"Ah, Ms. Stones. Yes. You can just head on in to Mr. Delmas's office. And congratulations," said Mrs. Dupont with a slight smile.
Aelita was puzzled. Congratulations, you just got a detention? That outcome no longer seemed plausible – she wondered what was going on. She knocked softly on the heavy wooden oak door.
"Come in," came Mr. Delmas's voice.
Aelita slowly entered his office, and was shocked to find that there were several individuals standing beside Principal Delmas: Jim, Mr. Chardin – her music teacher, and:
Chris Morales. The lead drummer of the SubDigitals. He looked quite cheerful.
Right. The auditions. Suddenly, Aelita felt more relaxed, if not a bit elated to see one of her music idols standing right in front of her.
"Hey Aelita, how're you doing?" Chris asked, grinning.
For a split second, Aelita was too stunned to speak. Chris was talking to her.
"F-F…I'm fine. Well. And you–yourself?"
"Not too bad, thank you."
Principal Delmas stepped in. "Well, as you might have already guessed, Chris is here from the SubDigitals was rather impressed with your demo, and has offered you –"
"–One of the greatest opportunities of your young musical career. I knew you had it in you all along, Ms. Stones. And my nephew–"
"A-hem. Thank you Jim. As I was saying, Chris wants you to be a part of their group and take part in their concert next year at the Paris Waterfront as the opening act, and we'd just like to over the details with you."
Chris smiled encouragingly, taking off his sunglasses. Beside him, Mr. Chardin gave Aelita a thumbs-up.
"Oh. O–okay." Aelita stuttered a bit, still shocked by all of this – she never thought that she would be the one selected out of all the other applications. Her throat felt a bit dry, but her insides felt as light as air. She couldn't wait to tell the others.
This October has truly been a month of opportunities.
Fragmented Legacy Fun Fact 009:
Like the author, Bryan has difficulties in remembering names. For instance, he calls Odd 'Odyssey', and William 'Wilhelm' or 'Willy'.
A|N's:
A week ago, this story reached 1000 hits – which to me, is an amazing accomplishment. Thank you everyone for your continued support! And next week, another one of my 'milestones' will be achieved: the tenth chapter, which will be released at the ultra-cool date of 11|11|11 =D
Feel free to leave a comment, and as always, thanks for reading Code LYOKO: Fragmented Legacies =)