Episode 5: "The Day the Earth Stood Still"

Yumi and William sat with their classmates in the gym, listening to Jim ramble on like he always does.

"Self-defense is not just moves and tactics, it's protection. At some point in your life, you may be forced to defend yourself." Jim's eyes gazed over his students, most of them sitting there half asleep. "Ishiyama, Dunbar, come up here and demonstrate self-defense techniques to the class."

William and Yumi got up from where they were sitting on the hardwood floor of the gym and moved to where Jim was standing.

"Okay, William here will be our attacker. Yumi will defend herself when William reaches out to grab her." Jim explained to the students.

"You ready?" William asked, getting in position.

"Ready when you are." Yumi responded, getting into position herself.

William reached out with both of his arms to grab Yumi, not being extremely intense in doing so, but just enough for it to look real. Yumi grabbed William's right arm and planted her fingers on the pressure point Jim had shown the class earlier. Yumi finished him off by lightly kicking a weak point in William's knee, causing him to begin to fall. William made one final effort to grab Yumi as he fell, almost as though he hoped he could pull himself back onto his feet, resulting in her falling with him.

Yumi was now on top of Wiliiam, pushing her upper body up with her arms. William from below gave her a faint smile, causing her to blush slightly.

"You okay?" Yumi asked, looking down at the black haired boy below her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." William said, his voice sweet and his smile caring. Yumi's already pink cheeks turned a darker shade.

"Great demonstration you two." Jim said, breaking the "moment", if you could call it one, between them. "Now, take your seats again."

Yumi stood up, offering her hand to William. When William was back on his feat, he gave a simple "Thanks", and they both sat back down, watching Jim demonstrate more self-defense moves.

—

Odd and Ulrich entered their dorm room, Ulrich quickly moving to his dresser.

"Come on, Ulrich, if we don't hurry up we'll miss lunch." Odd complained, his hands running his stomach. "If I don't eat I'll starve."

"Just give me a minute, Odd." Ulrich said. "I need to find my cell phone." Ulrich searched his dresser through and through, but came up short.

"Where did you leave it?" Odd asked, his stomach growling.

"I don't know, I could have sworn I had it with me at breakfast." Ulrich replied, baffled by his unexplained loss.

"Well, maybe if we go back to the cafeteria we can look for it, and if there just so happens to be food we could eat there too..." Odd said, his face one of desperation, but also of appreciation of what he had just said, hoping he would get food before it took over his thoughts totally.

"I get it, Odd. Fine, we can go." Ulrich said, closing the bottom drawer of his dresser.

"Great! Let's hurry, I don't want them to run out of mashed potatoes." Odd said, already halfway down the hallway.

"Odd, slow down!" Ulrich yelled, chasing after his energetic and hungry friend.

—

Jeremy sat at his computer in his dorm, running remotely off of the supercomputers processors. He had feuded to skip lunch and work on some small projects of his: William's own vehicle, a new multi-agent system able to create artificial land and objects on Lyoko, and searching for Aelita's father.

'Aelita would be happy to know I'm doing this.' Jeremy thought. 'I know she is worried about her father and holds out hope, but from initial reports... I just don't think it would make sense for him to be alive, but I could never tell her that.' Jeremy's thoughts made him more determined to look harder, wanting to keep Aelita happy and reunite her with her father.

Jeremy began working on a new scan program to search for any traces, but it would take him hours if not a couple of days to complete. 'Well, looks like I won't be getting sleep tonight.' Jeremy paused his thoughts for a moment. 'Oh, Franz, I hope you're out there, for Aelita's sake.'

—

"Odd, how can someone as scrawny as you run so fast?" Ulrich asked as both boys reached the cafeteria doors, both of them out of breath from the extreme sprint.

"Hey! I'm not scrawny, I'm svelte." Odd replied, causing Ulrich to laugh slightly as they walked in the doors.

"Rosa, how are you doing this fine day?" Odd asked, his tray as empty as his stomach, something he was hoping to change.

"Don't bother, Odd." Rosa said, looking down at the hungry student. "You don't have to play your little game with my today, somebody came by and said you could have their meal, some kinda agreement or something."

Odd's face was one of confusion, but he was overall excited over the situation. "I don't know what you're talking about, but as long as I get more food, I'm happy." As Odd finished, Rosa gave him second helpings of mashed potatoes, steak and gravy. Odd was in heaven as he slid his trey along the lunch line, his smile widening as he continued to move closer to his table where he could enjoy this random gift he had received.

When Odd finally sat down, Ulrich was close behind him, reminding him of their purpose here.

"Odd, we find my phone, then you can eat." Ulrich said in a slightly demanding tone while also not sounding extremely rude to his friend. Ulrich had already started looking when he heard Odd do something he often found easy to do: complain.

"But Ulrich," Odd said, his words stretched out as though to make his discomfort seem worse, "my food will get cold if I just leave it here. Can't you just look for it on your own?"

Ulrich saw no winning this argument, so he gave in before it started. "Fine, Odd. Eat your food, I'll look myself."

"Why are you so concerned about your phone anyway?" Odd asked, showing a spoonful of potatoes into his mouth.

"It's my phone, I need to have it in case someone needs to talk to me, if X.A.N.A. strikes..." Ulrich was cut off by Odd's half-full mouth speaking.

"You mean if Yumi texts you?" Odd asked, laughing over the red that appeared on Ulrich's face.

Thanks for all the support and with my posting change, hope this quality is an improvement on my dead tired writing. Read and review, thanks!