A week later I had tried my best to forget about the whole incident and just focused on the good things. I loved my party and now would wear my new electric blue jacket every day because let me tell you, it's cold! I also carried around my drawing pad and colored pencils. The last thing I always kept was Odd's necklace. These things were the first gifts I had ever gotten and they made me feel happy whenever I look at them.

I thought about all this during math class right before lunch. ignoring the lesson I really should be paying attention to. When we are Finally dismissed I head for lunch chatting casually with the others. Apparently Jeremy had some good news to share with us.

"If you have to run all the way to your room to grab your laptop that you forgot, then forget to bring it back with you resulting in you having to run back again, how am I the bad one for not paying attention in one class?" I asked, apparently it's not hard to notice your not paying attention when you don't notice the teacher so many times that she gives up.

"if you think about it I was at fault twice you were at fault so many more times I think the teacher almost cried.." Jeremy said trying his best to not laugh

"Alright I get it, I get it. Do you think Mrs. Hurts likes chocolate?" I asked

"I don think you'll be able to bribe her out of despair." Ulrich said mockingly

"hey I think despair is a little harsh, besides you have no room to talk." I said dangerously, i know for one thing he wouldn't want me to bring up his grades.

"who one the zombie race?" Odd said randomly, smiling at me. I know he's trying to cheer me up with One of his jokes, but I don't need to be cheered up anyways.

"who?" I asked pretending just to humor him, secretly I really enjoy his jokes, especially when he makes ones to cheer me up.

"It was dead even!" He said laughing and I giggle while the others just shook their heads. The cheesy jokes seemed to only make me feel warm on the inside.

we reached the cafeteria and chose our food, then we sat down and waited for Yumi. There was a pleasant mood hanging and no one talked to disturb it. Once Yumi grabbed her food, she was a little behind us because her teacher gave everyone a worksheet at the end of class, she came and sat down on my right. I smiled at her and she smiled warmly back, the only thing that could make this day right was, of course, the small thing that lead to a Xana attack that lead to disrupting the day.

"hey guys sorry I'm late, you got a letter Astrid." She said handing me a small envelope with a lump in it. "I picked it up on ghe way here, they asked me to give it to you. I think it might be a birthday present." Eagerly but cautiously I opened it inside was a card and a little paper wrapped package. I open the card and reaD what was inside.

"happy birthday." I said plainly, looking around the rest of it. It was a small white card with nothing on the front and only the two words happy birthday in it. I looked at the envelope but the address wasn't anywhere I could figure out.

"that's Odd" Odd said, inside I laughed a little but I was too caught up to think about it. Instead I set the card and envelope down and picked up the small package. When I opened it a chain fell out, it's a necklace. I pulled out the necklace and was shocked when I saw it, touching m neck to make sure mine was still there, this was a locket that looked exactly the same. The colors are different though, this one is gold but the other is silver. I looked closely at the new locket, i couldn't spot any cracks in it and it looked brand new.

I sat there staring at it for a while the others continuing about their conversation, I was mesmerized by the locket. Finally I decided to open it to see what's inside. I cautiously clicked the button but instead of opening it popped out a compartment. Looking inside I was caught off guard by what was in there and I gasped so quietly only I could hear.

inside was a folded up peice of paper that, on the side that showed, was a small picture a little baby...with white hair. I reached up my hand to touch the strand of hair that came past my shoulder. That has to be me, and if it is, in this picture I'm in a bib on the carpet with a women's hand reaching out. I quickly shut the compartment with my thumb, I can show the others later.

"Did you find anything?" Odd asked looking worringly at me, he obviously thought this bothered me, which it did.

Instead of telling him what it was I gave him a look that said ill show you later. He seemed to understand so I slipped the necklace into my pocket and turned my attention to the others.

"Okay I've got some great news!" Jeremy said eager to tell us.

"Well spit it out what are you waiting for?" Yumi said tapping her fork on the tray.

"I found a file in sector 5 that contains Williams codes, if we can acess it we can free William!" He said and I smiled. I've been feeling bad for William for a while now so I'm happy we can finally free him. It's not right to make someone act against their will.

"so are we going to lyoko tonight?" Ulrich asked

"actually no, remember we have the rest of the day off so we can go as soon as we're done." Aelita said she and Jeremy work together like a team, I guess they are one.

Once we were finished we headed down to the factory, walking through the woods the necklace felt heavy in my pocket. I don't want to bring it into lyoko, something tells me I shouldn't. So nondiscretely and keeping up with the conversation I slipped it out of my pocket a hung it on a branch. The only one who noticed was Odd, and again I gave him the I'll tell you later look, but at the same time I smiled. I truly feel that I can trust someone now, and I have no hesitation about telling him what I think about the locket.

Odd's POV

Once we had gotten to the factory I was feeling antsy, for some reason going to sector 5 felt like a bad idea. Maybe I was worried for Astrid or maybe I just didn't want to go to lyoko. Either way I don't know how to explain it. My minds not focused on the mission at hand but instead on the necklace Astrid got today. It was strange how it looked exactly like mine except for the color. Even stranger that Astrid found something she didn't want to share with the group. but she wants to shared it with me. Also why doesn't she want to bring it to the factory? There must be a reason.

While I was thinking i didn't notice Astrid's hand close around mine. Suddenly the nervousness went down and all I could do was be mesmerized by her smile. I looked into her eyes and she bent over to whisper something in my ear.

"meet me at the porthole tonight after we rescue William." she said and I smiled. Obviously this has to do with the necklace. Something about the fact that she only wants to share it with me makes me feel warm. Most people wouldn't pick me to share a secret with. But something tells me that if I had one I would share it too.

"Get to the scanners." Jeremy said as he walked over to the chairs and we all headed for the scanners. We let the girls go first and then me and Ulrich went.

Once we were in something went by me In a blur of brown, white, and light blue. "haha! This is fun!" Astrid exclaimed when I could see her straight. We were in the ice sector and she was skating around having a blast. I smiled warmly looking at her but then I thought.

"uh Astrid where did you get those?" I asked laughing as she whisked by Ulrich and he jumped.

"I don't know! Jeremy did you make these?" She asked still going at a moderate pace of fast!

"Yes I did, I figured you could use your own form of transportation and those were easy to make so why not?" He said and I could hear a laugh in his voice. I think every one was amused by her whizzing around as if flying.

"If it was easy to make do you think you could get us all ones?" Yumi asked her voice raising as Astrid almost ran into an ice spike. After a bit of silence we all suddenly fell down as we were unbalanced by the skates appearing on our shoes. I got up and Astrid skidded to a haunt in front of me.

"you look like you've done this before." I say teasingly and she replies by skating off again and pulling me with her.

"That's because I have!" she says her eyes sparkling. Soon we were all skating around and having a good time.

after ten minutes or so Jeremy said,"come on guys let's get back to the work at hand. I'll pull up every one else's vehicles and you can go to the edge of the sector." Even though the skates were fun I wasn't as good as Astrid was and that mysterious comment made me curious about her past. While she stayed on her skates we all got on our respected vehicles and headed off towards the edge of the sector. Astrid stayed close by me but she was limited to the ground.

As soon as we were at the edge of the sector jermeh typed in schyphio and we headed off to sector 5.

Hey sorry about this being shorter than some, I've got some studying to do and I want to give you guys some more content. Thank you all who have commented and followed, I really appreciate it. I hope you like it so far and feel free to suggest things you would like to see happen. Thank you again for keeping me inspired and don't forget to create what you like every now and then. Love you guys! Oh I guess it's not that short... Oh well thanks anyway!