Episode 4: "Homecoming"

Jeremy walked through the line in the cafeteria, first getting a crescent, followed by pancakes, bacon and a glass of orange juice. He walked over to the gangs usual table to find Ulrich, Odd and William all laughing, pieces of food falling out of Odd's mouth as he had filled it over compactly.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Jeremy asked, wondering what could have made his friends laugh so hard.

"Odd just looked up some of the most hilarious jokes ever on his phone." Ulrich answered, still laughing his head off.

"You wanna hear it, Einstein?" Odd asked already pulling the page back up on his phone.

"I think I'm good." Jeremy had just realized Aelita wasn't at the table, making him worry just a bit. "Where's Aelita?"

"I think she's still in her room, I passed by and she was sitting on her computer with the door open." William answered.

"William, what exactly were you doing in the girls dorm?" Ulrich asked, drawing the attention of the other two boys at William.

"Umm... studying..." William answered in a slightly off voice. The others to burst out laughing, William even joining in after a couple seconds.

"What are you dweebs laughing at?" Sissi snarled, having walked up to the table seconds earlier.

"What do you want, Sissi?" Ulrich asked in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Well, Ulrich dear, I just wanted to tell you to wear something nice tomorrow night for when we are voted king and queen at homecoming."

Ulrich laughed a little at this. "What makes you think you're going to win? Better question, what makes you think we would win together?"

"Because we would be the cutest couple ever, everyone in the school knows that." Sissi answered leaning in closer to Ulrich who was sitting on the outside chair of the table.

"Sorry, Sissi, last I checked Ulrich doesn't date baboons." The laughter before was no comparison to how loud it was now. Ulrich had to put his head down to block some of the sound and William almost slid out of his seat.

Sissi walked back to her usual table, her face red either from anger, embarrassment or both.

"What are you gonna do about homecoming, Sissi?" Nicholas asked with his usual clueless face.

"Ulrich and I will be king and queen, I'll make sure of it."

"And how are you gonna pull that off?" Herb asked, eating a piece of bacon.

"I have a plan, but I'm going to need some help." Sissi looked at Nicholas and Herb, a sinister smile on her face.

—

Jeremy walked down the girls' dorm hallway, stopping at Aelita's door.

*Knock* *Knock*

"Aelita, you there?"

After a couple of seconds, Aelita opened the door. "Hey, Jeremy, what's up?"

"Just wondering why you weren't at breakfast." He asked, concern not as prevalent in his tone as it could have been, but it was certainly there.

"I've just been looking over some stuff..." She paused for a couple of seconds. "Jeremy, do you think my father could still be alive somewhere?"

Jeremy was unsure how to answer her, so he just stated the facts. "Well, I don't know. He appeared to sacrifice himself when we used the multi-agent program to destroy X.A.N.A., but the message I was sent that had Odd's code was sent under the name Carthage. There's enough information to support the idea that he didn't survive." Upon saying this, Aelita's face dropped slightly, a sad expression on her face. "But, there's also enough there for us to hold hope. Don't worry, Aelita, we'll do whatever we can to find him if he's out there."

Aelita reached out and embraced Jeremy. "Thank you, Jeremy."

"Anytime, Princess." Jeremy smiled knowing that he had given her hope to get through this. Aelita smiled because she knew that with her friends, especially Jeremy, she could get through this.

—

Ulrich, Odd and William were all gathered in the recreation room on campus. It was about eight at night and Ulrich and William playing an intense game of phooseball.

"The ball rolls to William, he lines up the shot." Odd announced, acting as though he was a live sports announcer. "He shoots and it's blocked by Ulrich by the goal. Remember, ladies and gentlemen, this is a tied game nine to nine, making this game-point. It's over to Ulrich who swings for a hard corner shot in and it's blocked by William's left side. William kicks off his shot and it heads over."

The ball quickly moved passed Ulrich's players, scoring William the winning goal.

"Goal!" Odd exclaimed, attracting the attention of everyone in the room.

"Good game." Ulrich said, happy even with his loss.

"Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I thought you had me there when you were ahead by three, but I came back and won it all." William replied.

"Don't forget about our soccer game from earlier, I killed you." Ulrich reminded the raven haired boy.

"Three to one isn't killing last I checked." William replied.

"Girls, girls, you're both pretty." Odd said, breaking up the light hearted argument. They all laughed at Odd's comment.

"Hey, I just got the new Subdigitals cd if you guys want to head back to my room and listen." William offered.

"Sure, anything is better than being in a room that smells like Odd's feet." Ulrich and William burst out laughing.

"Hey, my feet aren't that bad!" Odd persisted.

"No offense man, but they really are." William answered as the three exited the rec. room and headed towards William's room.

Sissi watched as the three left, her mind wondering randomly as she stood there.

"Hey Sissi, I'm gonna go to the vending machine, want anything to drink?" Herb asked, a faint smile on his face.

Sissi was broken from her trance of thought as though she was being forcefully ripped from it with no way to get back to it. "Of course I don't want a drink, can't you see I'm thinking?" Her voice pierced through Herb, but he was used to it.

Herb walked out and went to the machines, thinking to himself. 'Sissi can be a real jerk sometimes. Oh, who am I kidding? She is always a jerk, always has been, always will be.' Herb popped his money into the machine and pressed the button for a soda, it making a clanking noise as it fell to the opening in the machine. 'She is so hated that she would have to rig the votes to ever win homecoming.' Thinking over what he had just said for a second, he realized exactly what idea he had unconsciously just created.

He ran back into the rec. room almost hitting Milly and Tamiya on his way in.

"What are you running for?" Sissi asked in her usual offensive tone.

"Sissi, I know how you can win homecoming with Ulrich!" Herb exclaimed, causing the room to look at him.

He leaned in closer and whispered his idea into her ear as quietly as a mouse walking on a carpet.

Sissi's eyes grew wider as he continued to explain his plan, a devilishly sinister smile on her face.

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