"You came back late, something happened?"

Jeremie sighed, being asked the question for the fourth time this morning. He would never think coming back late will resolve this, since it had never happened.

Well, now he was late because he was walking Aelita to Yumi's house, as he wanted to make sure she was safe and nothing ran her over.

"I said I just walked her to Yumi's, that's all that happened," Jeremie said, brushing his teeth.

"Sure, boy, sure." Odd mocked him, as Jeremie rolled his eyes. "We'll see when she comes."

Jeremie gave up, washed his toothbrush, and left the bathroom, seeing he will be interrogated more and more throughout the day. And it will be hard to get away from them since they will be all with Aelita to guide her through school.

Aelita Schaeffer was the name they decided on...well, Aelita thought of it, while she spent another night on call with Jeremie, when he couldn't sleep, while she was thinking of something. It was a random word that made no sense, but it was enough to be believed by the principal probably.

He quickly packed his things, only to begin looking at his laptop. It was no use to bringing it anymore, since Aelita is with them, and Lyoko was turned off. He just closed the bag where he had almost nothing and threw it on his shoulder.

He got out of his room, only to be met by Ulrich and Odd, sheepishly smiling.

"Goofballs." He murmured and began walking towards the staircase, followed by them. They all stopped in front of the entrance to the school part of the campus, where they already saw Yumi, and Aelita running towards them.

"Hey, girls." Ulrich, of course, greeted them first, going closer to Yumi. The two girls waved in response, and the group walked inside the school. Somehow, Aelita made her way next to Jeremie without him noticing in any way, only when she sat next to him he noticed it.

"Hey." "Hi, Jeremie." She responded and smiled at the boy. The bell rang, and the teacher was walking through the door, welcoming all students.

"I was told that we have a new student here, Aelita Schaeffer." The teacher said. "Mind if you stood up and told us something about yourself?"

Aelita stood up, still having her smile on.

"I'm Aelita, and I just got enrolled here. I don't have any hobbies, and I try to be a friendly person." Aelita said proudly, as some students began laughing. Her smile faded away, as the teacher motioned with her hand to sit down, and went over to the students in the back.

Jeremie looked at Aelita, seeing she was really sad. He placed his hand on hers in the hope it will make her feel better when she knows he is there. Aelita turned her head to face Jeremie and smiled.

After that, the teacher came back to the front and began explaining the lecture, no one was doing anything except some did listen to her. Aelita was different. She began writing the notes. Jeremie's interest has peeked; how did she know how to write?

He slightly lifted himself up just enough to see the notes. And they were beautiful. Aelita wrote in exemplar cursive, and she managed to design a part of the page while writing the notes and actually listening to their teacher...which was hard even for Jeremie himself.

"You want to copy my notes?" He suddenly heard from the girl that was writing the mentioned notes.

"N-No." Jeremie apologized, leaning back into his seat when he realized he was staring too much for too long. He even heard some giggling behind him coming from Odd.

Aelita continued writing the notes, but slowly turned to another page and began doing something else...drawing. Just in time, the teacher left the class to talk to someone on the phone, Aelita drove a sketch and passed it to Jeremie.

"Does it look like a flower?" She asked with her sweet voice. Jeremie looked at the drawing, which was like a clone of a real rose.

"Of course, it's a rose," Jeremie answered, making Aelita smile again. Somehow, it was the sweetest smile he had ever seen. Aelita had her skin so smooth she didn't even have makeup on (she didn't need it), and Jeremie saw a layer of lipstick on her lips.

The bell rang, and the students sitting in the back were soon out of the class, followed by almost everyone else, including Jeremie. He followed them out, needing to talk to Odd about his giggling.

"Odd..." "I'm sorry, but you really thought she wouldn't notice?" Odd asked.

"I forgot- I zoned out." "Mhm, sure." Odd laughed.

"Ae- where is she?" Jeremie looked around, not seeing the girl who was sitting with him at the table.

"I didn't even see her leaving," Ulrich said, immediately walking away from the two, as he spotted Yumi outside. Jeremie walked back into the classroom, seeing Aelita still at the table, still drawing.

"Aelita, the bell rang," Jeremie said and walked towards her.

"The teacher didn't dismiss us," Aelita replied, not looking away from the notepad. "Yumi said that the teacher dismiss us, and only then we can leave."

"That's true," Jeremie said. "But since she left, and the bell rang, we can leave. She won't mind."

Aelita looked at him, and nodded, closing the notepad. She stood up from the chair and walked out together with Jeremie next to her.

/-/-/-/

Aelita walked alone into the cafeteria after two more lessons. She was told that Odd, Yumi, and Jeremie will be there the moment they explain to the principal why there were missing books from the library.

She stepped into the separate building, looking around. Some people were standing in line, others were sitting at tables and eating. The girl walked towards the line, and grabbed a plate. She stood behind the last person and saw more people walking behind her and chatting with each other.

Aelita looked around the cafeteria, hoping to see someone from their friend group, but was unsuccessful.

"Move." She heard and was pushed forward. Aelita quickly moved forward to a lady, who was giving out the food.

"What would you like?" The woman asked as Aelita looked over the food, unsure what to pick out.

"Pick something up for Christ's sake!" A boy behind her shouted, making Aelita run away from the cafeteria embarrassed and scared.

She found herself stopping under a tree, and sitting under it, letting the tears out. Some students saw her, but they didn't care, and Aelita also didn't care about being seen like this.

What did I do wrong? She thought to herself, not understanding why she needed to be shouted at.

"Aelita? Aelita!" The pink-haired girl heard, looking up.

She saw Jeremie running towards her.