Chapter 2
"Hey Maggie, it's Odd." Odd said into his cell. He was sitting on his bed, in front of him; Ulrich was getting ready for bed.
"Odd? S'up kiddo?" Maggie's voice asked.
"I was, that is, we were wondering if you could help us keep a little secret here." Odd started to explain.
"Sure, what is it?"
"There's a girl here, one of my friends, her name's Aélita, she's an orphan but wanted to go to school here. Another one of my friends was able to set it up where he was paying for her schooling, but we kinda told them that you and Xavier were her parents."
"So you want me to keep on pretending, non?" Maggie asked, laughter in her voice. "Sure, I'll play along."
"Yes? Thanks!"
"What, you didn't think I would help you out?"
"I didn't know. You're not all that predictable, you know." Odd said.
"Anything else before I go back to sleep?" Maggie asked. "We're here, waiting on the plane to get there right now."
"Oh, sure, sorry." Odd said, smiling. "Night."
"Night Odd."
Odd turned off his cell and smiled at Ulrich, who was standing in only his boxers, his undershirt in his hand.
"So, she agreed to it?" Ulrich asked.
"Yap." Odd said, smiling as he dialed another number. "I'll call Aélita and tell her the good news."
"That'll calm both of their minds." Ulrich said, putting on his undershirt. He grabbed his stomach as if it had all of a sudden started to hurt.
"Hey Aélita, she said yes." Odd said, watching Ulrich sit down on his bed.
-.-.-.-
"You serious?" Aélita asked, looking up from Jérémie's laptop to her friend in the room. "She said yes!"
"Thank goodness." Jérémie said.
Aélita hung up and looked at Jérémie, sitting at his computer in his pjs. "At least that's covered. But what if she asks why we told them I was her daughter?"
"When she sees you're hair color, they'll understand." Jérémie said, turning towards Aélita.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Aélita asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"Uh, s-sorry Aélita." Jérémie said, scratching his neck. "I didn't mean..."
Aélita smiled, putting her hands back on the keyboard of the laptop. "It's ok. I knew what you meant."
A moment past between the two before Aélita said, "Jérémie, do you still like me?"
"What do you mean? Of course I still like you." Jérémie said, getting out of his chair. He moved over to Aélita, who had looked down at the laptop. "Why do you ask that?"
"Well, after I got out of Lyoko, you...you never spend any time with me. The only way we spend time with each other is when we're working on Lyoko." Aélita said, afraid she might start to cry.
Jérémie put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. "I'm so sorry, Aélita." Jérémie said, putting his chin on Aélita's head. He breathed in her sweet scent and remembered her first night on earth. He let go and looked her in the eyes to ask, "Do you wanna go for a walk?"
Aélita smiled as she moved the laptop off of her lap. "Sure Jérémie."
Jérémie stood up and took her hand, leading her off of his bed and out into the hallway. The two looked around, not taking their hands apart from the other's hand and kept an eye out for Jim.
They made it out of the dormitory, running out of the door as fast as they could.
Jérémie slowed down, his hand still in Aélita to let her know to slow down as well. They walked on the walkway threw the park, hand in hand. The pair in their pajamas.
"I know that I haven't spent much time with you lately, and I'm sorry." Jérémie said.
"It's ok Jérémie; I know you've been working with the sector 5 access." Aélita said, squeezing his hand.
"But you're right." Jérémie said, stopping. He grabbed her other hand and held it tight, looking at her jade green eyes. "I've wish I could spend more of my time with you, and after I get that passage way, I can. That is, if you want to."
"You know I want to." Aélita said, smiling. "You remember what I said when I was stuck on Lyoko?"
"I remember a lot from when you were on Lyoko." Jérémie said, his mind going back to when he almost lost her.
Aélita took her right hand out of Jérémie's hand and put it on his face, taking him by surprise. "I love you Jérémie." Aélita said before leaning towards him, her eyes closed.
Jérémie closed his eyes, moving his lips and lead towards Aélita.
They met in the middle and kissed, Aélita moving her hands to Jérémie's neck and pulled him closer as she kissed him with passion.
Jérémie moved his hands to Aélita's waist, holding her closer to him.
They stood like that for what could've been forever for as far as they know.
SNAP!
Aélita broke apart from Jérémie, their face's full of surprised.
"Come on!" Aélita hissed to Jérémie, grabbing his hand and pulling him into the woods of the park.
They dropped behind a bush and turned so they could see what had made the noise.
Not but a meter away from where they had been standing was Jim, shining a flash light around, looking for them.
"Is anybody there!?" Jim asked, scanning around for any movement.
Jérémie bit his bottom lip as he waited for Jim to turn around and go back into the building.
Jim shined the flash light in their direction, scanning over them, only to flash it back onto their bush.
Aélita held her breath as Jim headed over to their bush.
"JIM! What are you doing?" Delmas' voice called to the gym teacher.
Jim turned around, shining the flash light straight into his boss's eyes. Jim lowered the light, saying, "Sorry sir, I thought I saw somebody."
"I really doubt somebody would be out at this time of night." Delmas said, crossing his arms over his chest. "And I need your help. Apparently Gaston forgot to check the allergy list and put shell fish in the dinner crepes."
"Ewww." Jim said as he made a face. "Don't tell me, Ulrich's throwing up?"
Delmas nodded his head.
"At least it's not like some of the reactions I've seen to shell fish when I worked at the Medical Researchers' Institute in New Mexico." Jim said as he and Delmas went back to the dormitory.
"You worked in a medical researching center?" Delmas asked.
"Yes, but I'd rather not talk about it."
As soon as they were out of ear shot, Aélita and Jérémie stood up.
"I hope Ulrich's ok." Aélita said.
"If it's anything like the last time he had shell fish, it won't be pretty." Jérémie said, putting his hand back in Aélita. "Come on, we might as well see what we can do to help him."
-.-.-.-
"How's he doing?" Aélita asked Odd as Jérémie and she walked over to Odd, who was standing in the hallway by the bathroom door.
"He's better than earlier." Odd said. "He's just sitting next to the toilet."
"I have to ask. How many times did it take him to get to the bathroom?" Jérémie asked.
"Only three." Odd said, sounding surprised. "Though I had to hide Kiwi from Jim."
"Poor Ulrich." Aélita said.
"I'll go and check on him." Jérémie said, walking into the bathroom. "Hey Ulrich, you ok?"
"Ugh, better, but I still hate shell fish." Ulrich said, his voice coming from a stall.
Jérémie followed his friend's voice to an opened stall and saw Ulrich sitting on the floor, his head close to the toilet bowl. "I think it's more of shell fish doesn't like you." Jérémie said, leaning against the wall to the stall. "Does Yumi know?"
"I don't think so, but don't call her right now." Ulrich said. "Ug, everything tastes worst the second time around."
"Don't have to tell me." Jérémie said.
Ulrich started to cough, turning so that his head was over the toilet bowl.
Jérémie turned his head so that he wouldn't see his friend throw up.
When Ulrich had finished, Jérémie turned his head back to look at his friend. Ulrich ripped off a piece of toilet paper to wipe his mouth. He threw in the paper and flushed the toilet, not bothering to get up off the floor.
"You'd think I'd run out of stuff to throw up by now." Ulrich said, looking up at his friend.
"Is anybody else in there but you two?" Aélita's voice called from the door.
Jérémie looked around and said, "No, we're the only ones in here."
Aélita walked in with a glass in one hand and a blue bowl with a spoon sticking out of it.
"What is that?" Ulrich asked as he watched her walk into the bathroom.
"It's something I read a while back while I was studying Earth." Aélita explained, handing the bowl and spoon to Jérémie.
Aélita walked over to the sink and filled up the glass as Jérémie looked in the bowl, seeing a white powder. "Baking soda?"
"Yes, it calms down stomachs." Aélita said, walking back over to Ulrich and Jérémie. "I know it sounds weird, and tastes even weirder, but it works."
"If it helps me to stop throwing up, I'll take it." Ulrich said. "Anything's better than shell fish the second time around."
Jérémie handed the bowl to Ulrich and he ate the small amount of baking soda. He shook his head at the sharp taste before grabbing the glass Aélita had gotten and drunk it all down.
"It's always the stuff that tastes terrible that actually works." Ulrich said, to help himself feel better.
"I better get out of here before Jim finds out I'm in the boys' restroom." Aélita said, picking up the bowl and cup. "He'd have a cow."
"Hey, leave the cup please." Ulrich said, looking up at her.
"Sure." Aélita said, putting it back on the floor next to him.
"Thanks Aélita." Ulrich said as she walked out of the bathroom. She went down the hallway and into Odd's bedroom, bowl still in hand, and walked into her friend's room.
"Is he any better?" Odd asked, Kiwi bringing him the toy ball back to his master.
"Ya, I gave him something that might help his stomach calm down." Aélita said, sitting on Odd's bed. "Jérémie's staying with him."
"Oh, ok." Odd said, his face still a little down.
"You ok? You look sad." Aélita said, looking at his face.
"Oh, it's just a letter I got a while back. It's been bugging me." Odd said, tossing the ball again for Kiwi.
"What did it say?"
"I'll get it and you can read it for yourself." Odd said, getting up. He knelt down at the foot end of his bed and slid open the draw underneath his bed to reveal a whole boat load of random objects, between mice and other toys for Kiwi to a Transformer action figure. Odd picked out an envelope and read who it was from before handing it to Aélita.
Aélita sat down her bowl on the floor and opened the letter. It read;
Dear Odd,
I don't mean to be too frank but I don't have long to write. We can't see each other anymore. I know this is sudden, but I just can't see you anymore. It has nothing to do with the fact that I haven't seen you since the party at Yumi's house, but that I feel like I have my heart split between two people and I can stand it anymore. I've got to do what I feel is right. I do still love you Odd. You will always be that one spot I love, but things are just getting too complicated.
With Love
Your Samantha
"I'm so sorry Odd." Aélita said, folding up the letter and giving it back to Odd.
"Thanks." Odd said, taking the letter back. He held it in his hand for a moment before laying it beside him.
The two sat in silence for a moment before they were startled by the door opening.
They looked up and saw Ulrich and Jérémie walking in.
"You feeling any better?" Odd asked as Ulrich sat down on his bed.
"A lot better." Ulrich looked to Aélita and said, "Thanks to you and your baking soda."
Aélita smiled, glad he was feeling better.
Jérémie yawned before saying, "Well, I'm going to bed. Aélita?"
Aélita looked up at him and smiled even bigger, remembering what they were doing before hearing about Ulrich. "Ya, I should be going to bed, too."
Aélita picked up her bowl and stood up. Ulrich handed her the glass and the two headed out of the room.
"Good night." Odd said, smiling at the two leaving.
"Good night." Aélita said, shutting the door behind her.
Aélita and Jérémie walked over to the stairs to head down to their rooms.
"How did the baking soda work?" Jérémie asked, faintly remember hearing something about it.
"Baking soda eats at whatever's causing them to get sick, but what I used was just physiological." Aélita said, pointing to her head.
"Huh?"
"I couldn't find any baking soda so I mixed salt with sugar. I guessed he had never had baking soda by itself before and just told him it was baking soda." Aélita explained as she pushed open the door to their floor.
"Oh, a placebo."
Aélita nodded her head, turning towards her door. "Night Jérémie."
"Good night Aélita." Jérémie said, leaning towards her and kissing her cheek.