Episode 12: Crucifixion

William walked over to the gangs usual table, his footsteps inaudible over the empty and meaningless conversations occurring around him, their volumes elevated to unreasonable levels. He sat in the seat closest to the isle, Aelita to his right, Odd, Ulrich, and Jeremy seated across from him.

"Good morning guys." William said, picking up his fork.

"Hey, William." Aelita said, looking over at him.

William, noticing the lack of Yumi, who by this time would normally have greeted the group near the end of their breakfast, decided to question her absence.

"Do you guys know where Yumi is?" He asked, Jeremy taking a drink of orange juice across from him.

"Avoiding Ulrich." Odd said, causing Ulrich to turn to him with a displeased expression, hinting at anger as well, his brows focused. "She came in, saw him, then she left."

"Why did she do that? Is she still mad about what happened with the fake picture?" William questioned.

"Yeah..." Ulrich said, lowering his head slightly. "I tried to apologize, but she just said she had already given me enough chances, that I didn't deserve another, that it always ends the same way."

William noticed his friends distress and made an attempt to console him.

"Don't worry about it too much. I know Yumi, she'll come back around. I would just give her a little time alone for now, let her think about everything."

"I agree." Aelita said, "What you guys have is really strong, and I know Yumi won't just let that go so easily."

Ulrich smiled, feeling a bit relieved by what his friends said.

Jeremy looked at the time on his phone. "Well, I'm off to the factory. We've nearly completed a program that could block X.A.N.A. from drawing energy from the internet, but Franz and I still need to run the final tests before we release it. I'll let you guys know how it goes when we finish."

Jeremy got up and exited the cafeteria, leaving his tray behind, something Odd quickly took advantage of.

"Nothing better than a free banana." Odd said, biting off half of the entire fruit in one bite.

"Odd, you're a pig." Ulrich said.

"No, he's worse; all the pigs wish they could eat as much as him." Aelita said, causing everyone to laugh other then Odd who by now had the other half moving down his throat.

—

"All seems to be moving smoothly." Franz said, turning the chair to face Jeremy who stood behind him. "At this pace, we'll have the firewall completed in under a week."

"We defiantly need it." Jeremy said, pacing back and forth. "We've had too many close calls. The drone, the flood, everything. We can't take any more risky from now on."

"If this works, we may not have to take any." Franz said, turning his chair back to the computer. "But sometimes, the risk is worth the reward."

—

Aelita, Odd and Ulrich exited the cafeteria, leaving William inside to finish his food.

"You guys have your math notes ready?" Aelita asked. "We have to turn them in today to show that we've finish them."

Odd stopped dead in his tracks.

"Wait, those are due today!?" He asked in shock. If his hair could stand up any more than it already was, then it was standing tall.

"Odd, did you forget to bring them?" Ulrich asked, giving Odd a look of humility.

"No, I just... kept them there for safe keeping." Odd said, lying through his teeth.

"Odd, how could you be so stupid that you would..." Ulrich halted in mid-banter, having an epiphany of his own. He felt through his satchel, but to no avail; his papers were absent from the bag.

Odd took this opportunity to return fire. "Well, well, who's so stupid now?" Odd chuckled, Ulrich still hoping that his papers would magically appear.

"Well, looks like you guys have about ten minutes before class starts. Better hustle, or you'll be late." Aelita said.

Odd and Ulrich turned to look at each other for a moment, nodded, then both of them bolted towards the dorms, winds blowing up behind them as they ran.

'Makes me glad I remembered to grab mine this morning.' Aelita thought, walking to class. As she got close to the building entrance, she noticed Yumi standing a few meters away.

"Yumi!" She called over, walking towards the raven haired girl. Yumi looked up as she drew closer.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Aelita asked, noticing the uneasy look on Yumi's face.

"I've been better." She replied.

"Is it Ulrich?" Aelita asked.

"Yeah..." Yumi replied, lowering her head.

"What's the problem? There was a misunderstanding, you guys fought, he apologized..."

Aelita was cut off when Yumi unexpectedly spoke up. "The problem isn't that there was a misunderstanding, it's how he handled it. It's always the same with him; the moment he thinks I did something wrong he immediately thinks calls me guilty before even talking to me about it. He doesn't trust me at all."

Aelita moved closer to her friend, hoping to convince her otherwise. "Yumi, he does trust you, and he cares deeply about you."

"Well, yesterday he certainly had an interesting way of showing it." Yumi said, interrupting Aelita for a second time.

"Yumi, I've seen him when times are hard between you two, and trust me, he cares. I see it on his face, in his eyes. When you two are together, his eyes brighten up, almost like they have a sparkle to them. And when you guys fight, he just seems so empty, so hopeless; the sparkle goes away. Right now, all I see is sadness in him..." Aelita paused for a moment, trying to recompose her thoughts. "He cares about you, and believe it or not he trusts you, he just gets jealous because that's how teenagers are. So just try to forgive him, give him another chance."

Yumi let a single tear fall, clenching a fist to hold the others in. She looked past Aelita and began walking away.

"Where are you going?" Aelita asked, turning to see her friend's back as she walked away.

"I gotta go... clear my head." Yumi said, leaving Aelita and that conversation behind her, but the thoughts lingered in her head.

'He trusts you.' She heard in her head.

'He cares.'

—

Wow, we are on episode 12 of 13 for season 1. 75,000 words and 14,000 views in and I would never have guessed I would get this far. Thanks to all of you loyal fans for reading, and make sure to, as always, review!