Chapter 4: A new incorporation at Kadic

A class full of kids was shouting and throwing things at each other. Some students tried to pre-study the lesson, like Jeremy while others, like Ulrich, looked out the window while holding hands with his girlfriend Sissi. Meanwhile, Odd tried to get himself a girlfriend, with little to no success.

Suddenly, the door opened and the teacher entered the class, thus the students took their sits and stayed silent, curious about this new professor.

- Hello everyone, my name is Aelita Delmas and I'll be your new Physics teacher.

10 years ago

Aelita enrolled Kadic, but as she had already studied all, as she demonstrated to her uncle and the other teachers, she skipped 4 grades so she just made the last one.

She didn't make a lot of friends, as she was the little kid who everyone thought was the daughter of the principal. The reason: Aelita changed her surname. It was a difficult decision, but it was best to keep hidden from the men in black.

- Your father was always so stubborn -said Jean-Pierre-. He had some issues with our father, so he changed his surname to our mother's: Schaeffer. Then when he came looking to work at Kadic he had already changed everything again. He had taken his middle name and your mother's surname. He may be a genius, but boy he wasn't that original.

After that one last year at Kadic, Aelita easily attended college. Her uncle didn't like the idea, as he thought a 14-year-old wasn't prepared to go to the United States alone, as Aelita intended to do when she received her approved solicitudes for both the MIT and Harvard. In the end, he couldn't say no to her. He saw his brother in her, she was even taking his same steps. He knew she would be fine.

Aelita finally decided she was going to the MIT, not because she liked it better, but because she was going to study Physics and Computational engineering, one after the other, so MIT was the best option.

College life was not like she imagined. Maybe it was the fact that she was now a kid, and no one wanted to go partying with her (plus, she legally couldn't do it either). She missed being a DJ though, so she enrolled in an electronic music club on campus, just to enjoy the things of her past lifetime again.

8 years passed, and now at 21 years of age, she decided to come back to France and study a Quantum Physics master's degree in Paris, just 20 minutes away from her uncle's house (not Kadic).

Aelita thought to herself that all of this studying was just because she liked it, because she was passionate about computers, maybe not as much as Jeremy, but she was. Although deep inside of her she knew she did this just to try to turn on the supercomputer and localize her father, she promised him she wouldn't do that, she would put all the world at risk. That computer needed to stay off; and XANA, trapped.

It had hurt to see her father die; it had hurt even more to accept the fact he was dead, but now, the pain of knowing he was again alive -although for a limited time- was indescribable. But the pain of seeing again the world suffering and the deaths of hundreds,was greater.

It still tormented her just as she counted the days left to the day they would suddenly die at the same time in this timeline. She was curious about how the government would explain it, maybe as a virus causing multiple heart attacks. "I'm starting to sound like Odd when he thought about new movie ideas" Aelita thought laughing.

The present-day

She was finishing her master's degree, she just needed to make her thesis. She thought she would work half-time, just to earn some money and have herself occupied. This obliged her to do the dissertation little by little, instead of doing it in just two sleepless nights weeks, just as she would do. It was a bad habit that she inherited from Jeremy, but the fact that she already knew the topic -the easiest one, the supercomputer- made her want to finish it already, so working was the best thing to do to keep herself busy.

All of this made that, the day her uncle Jean-Pièrre told her that there was a vacant Physics teacher position, Aelita instantly and happily accepted. She always had thought of coming back to Kadic, "visiting her uncle and her cousin" just to try to reunite with her old friends, but she had never had the courage. She was too shy to do it, there was a 10-year gap between them, it would be Odd. She laughed at that joke.

But now, as a teacher, everything was different. She could have a relationship with them again, even if it wasn't as friends; it was better than not seeing them.

Mr. Delmas walked Aelita down the hall to her class:

- Are you nervous? I hope you remember the place.

- I was only 1 year, but I think I can orientate myself.

- Did you install everything in your room?

- Not yet, I still need to take out some clothes. So which class am I teaching first?

- Elisabeth's! Isn't it great?

- Yes it is! – Aelita hadn't been happier in her life.

Mr. Delmas opened the door for her and so she entered and stood in front of the class:

- Hello everyone, my name is Aelita Delmas and I'll be your new Physics teacher.

- Hi students. This is my niece, she'll join us from now on, so I hope you make her feel welcome. If I find out that any of you make something to her, you won't like what would happen.

- Don't worry, uncle. I'll be fine.

Mr. Delmas left the class, leaving Aelita alone in front of the multitude.

- So, class. Who here likes physics?

Just Jeremy raised his hand.

- And who will you be?

- My name is Jeremy, Jeremy Belpois.

- Well, Jeremy. I think we're going to have an interesting year you and me.