A/N: Once again I say… This takes place in modern time… not 2003. So the characters are gonna be talking about social media and such so you guys aren't confused… Y'all know the drill by now… Read, Review and stay beautiful.
After spending all weekend thinking about what he was gonna say to Yumi, Ulrich finally had a pretty solid game plan. He was gonna pull her aside and finally tell her everything that had been plaguing his mind since the day he met her in Jim's martial arts class when it was just the two of them.
"You good, Ulrich?" Theo's voice pulls him out of the trance he had been in. Ulrich looks at him as well as the other members of the team, all of whom have the same look of concern for their team captain.
"Yeah. I'm fine." Ulrich responds as he runs a hand through his hair. "Just thinking about the test we have in history today."
"We have a test?" Odd's ears perk up and pauses with a fork halfway to his mouth. The other members look at him and nod their heads toward him.
"Yeah, Odd. Mr. Willis has been reminding us for the last week about it." Theo chuckles as he goes back to his own breakfast. Odd's eyes widen before he shrugs and goes back to his food.
After breakfast ends, Ulrich, Odd and the rest of the team exit the cafeteria and walk over to some of the benches. They make themselves comfortable as some team members look over notes from their classes, some go on their cell phones, and in Odd's case, fall asleep using his backpack as a pillow. As more people begin to show up and mingle before classes begin, Ulrich finds himself scanning for one particular person but is unable to spot her. Unfortunately, someone else spots him.
"Ulrich!" A shrill and ear piercing voice echoes across the courtyard and startles Odd out of his slumber and in his grogginess, Odd yells the first thing on his mind.
"It's not my monkey!" Odd yells as he jumps up, causing some of the guys to laugh. They all glance over to see Sissi waving her hand and running over to them. Over the last few weeks, Sissi has decided that with warm weather means that she can wear as little as possible. The entire team lets out a simultaneous groan as they all prepare for the walking headache that is Sissi Delmas.
"Ulrich, get rid of her… I beg of you…" One of the guys sighs as he slinks down in his seat.
"Yeah, yeah…" Ulrich quietly responds as he mentally prepares himself to lose brain cells in the interaction that's about to take place.
"Well, my dear Ulrich, how are you on this lovely monday?" Sissi asks, sweetly as she approaches the group.
"What do you want, Sissi?" Ulrich grumbles as he shoves his hands into his jean pockets.
"I actually was wondering if you've seen Yumi around? I have a few questions for her." Sissi responds as she pulls her phone out of her bag.
"Not today… Why? What questions could you possibly have for her?" Ulrich raises an eyebrow at Sissi's response.
"I wanted to know how it's possible that a girl like Yumi knows people like Jordan Walsh and Jill Price." Sissi smugly smiles.
"What does that have to do with anything?" One of the guys asks, putting down his notebook.
"Do you not know anything about social media?" Sissi huffs as she places a hand on her hip. All the boys either shake their heads or shrug their shoulders in response. "Jordan Walsh and Jill Price are two huge social media influencers. Jordan posts a lot of stuff about dance and Jill does a lot of fashion and makeup as well as dance."
"Okay…" One of the guys rolls his eyes. "And we should care because…?"
"Combined they have like 11 million followers!" Sissi screeches, stomping her foot. All of the guys wince at her high pitched voice. "Anyway… Jordan posted this photo WITH Yumi." Sissi turns her phone to reveal the photo from the girls' night Yumi, Jill and Jordan had at Yumi's house. "And I wanted to ask her if she could talk to Jill and see if she would do a video with me to promote my accounts." Sissi flicks some hair over her shoulder.
"Why would Yumi do that? She hates you…" Odd chimes in, rubbing his eyes.
"Yeah… I seriously doubt that Yumi would want to help YOU get internet famous." Ulrich chuckles at the thought of Yumi helping Sissi.
"Oh Ulrich, dear, I know how to get what I want. And what I want is to be a famous influencer and I will be." Sissi purrs as she places a hand on Ulrich's chest before she walks away to search for Yumi. Ulrich grimaces as he glares at Sissi's retreating form.
"She's delusional." Ulrich grumbles as he pulls his phone out of his jacket pocket.
"You're just NOW noticing?" Theo remarks from his spot on the ground, not looking up from his notebook. Ulrich rolls his eyes and goes on Instagram to look for Yumi's profile. Even though every one of the Lyoko warriors is on social media, Ulrich really only follows the guys on his team. While he is somewhat active on social media posting photos of himself and the team, he doesn't know much about popular influencers. It takes him a minute but after scrolling and searching, he manages to find Yumi's profile. A lot of the photos on her page include her brother, her parents and either cute little pen drawings or black and white photos of the city.
However, there are a few photos scattered throughout Yumi's feed that consist of her and people Ulrich has never seen before. There are pictures of Yumi with groups of girls, all in halloween costumes of some kind, who are all smiling and cheering. Some pictures show Yumi sitting in what looks like a gym or studio with groups of people. One photo in particular stands out to Ulrich and to him, not in a good way. It shows Yumi sitting next to a guy who has a guitar with her head on his shoulder and him leaning his head against hers, both have huge smiles on their faces. Ulrich feels his stomach drop as he looks at the photo. His dislike for the photo must have made it to his face because Odd calls it out.
"You okay, buddy?" Odd asks as he stands up from the ground and dusts himself off, grabbing his backpack in the process. Ulrich quickly locks his phone and shoves it into his pocket before he adjusts his backpack strap and nods his head. Odd opens his mouth to say something, but the bell screams across the quad. Students begin dashing across the open space to get to their classes to avoid getting scolded for being late.
"Well, time for that history test… Let's go." Theo remarks as he stands from the bench and puts his notebook back in his backpack. The team splits up and half of them go off toward the science building while the other half go toward one of the history classrooms on the third floor.
During the test, Ulrich tries to focus on the words in front of him, but his mind keeps going back to the photo he had seen on Yumi's social media page. To try and clear his head a little so he can finish the test with a room temperature grade, he looks out the window at the courtyard he was standing in only a few minutes ago. Out the window he sees a figure walking through the empty quad toward the administration building with headphones on. Ulrich immediately recognizes the figure. Yumi… She strolls into the office building and disappears through the door.
'So much for clearing my head so I can focus…' Ulrich thinks to himself as he shakes his head and turns his attention back to the history test. After the bell rings, the team resumes their positions from earlier, only difference is Ulrich is now sitting on the ground with his back against the seat of the bench that two of his teammates are on.
"That was rough…Who decided that a test on a Monday morning would be a good idea?" Odd remarks from his spot as he runs a hand over his face. The other guys chime in with their own responses of groans. As the team continues to hang out in the quad, Ulrich takes out his phone and continues to scroll through Yumi's social media page. Even though there is a bit of time between posts, she actually posts somewhat frequently.
"What'cha looking at?" Theo asks as he looks over Ulrich's shoulder. Ulrich quickly exits Yumi's profile and goes to his home page.
"Just doom scrolling a little to try and forget how bad I just did on that test." Ulrich tries to act as nonchalant as possible.
"And by doom scrolling you mean stalking someone's profile and I'm guessing that 'someone' is Yumi." Theo jokes in a hushed tone as to not arouse suspicion from the other guys. Ulrich looks up at him and shoots him a look. "Hey, no judgment." Theo throws his hands up in surrender.
"I was just curious about what Sissi said about Yumi knowing some big influencers so I took a peek." Ulrich defends himself as Theo nods and goes back to his own cell phone. After a few minutes of sitting there, a particular voice reaches Ulrich's ears causing him to whip his head up to look at the source of the voice. Yumi is leaning against a tree not too far from the group, talking on the phone with someone.
"Will you calm down? I just left the administration building. I had to turn in my extended leave paperwork. Delmas was confused as hell but he approved it so I do not have to step foot on campus again for the rest of the semester." Yumi says into the phone. This catches Odd, Ulrich and Theo's attention. They all look at each other with raised eyebrows. "I'll meet ya at Rise and Shine in twenty minutes. I gotta go talk to a teacher first." Yumi pushes herself off the tree. "I don't care if they come. I love them and they know it. Alright. See ya soon. Bye. Love you too bitch." Yumi hangs up her phone and begins walking over to one of the classrooms under the arches.
"Did we all just hear that right?" Odd asks, his mouth hanging open in shock.
"Yumi took out an extended leave and she won't be on campus for the rest of the semester… Yeah." Theo repeats what they heard. "And that can mean a few things but I think I have a pretty good idea…"
"Which is…" Ulrich presses his friend to finish his thought.
"Usually when someone takes an extended leave from school, they're likely looking at transferring schools." Theo says.
"That's ridiculous. You don't know what you're talking about." Odd says, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Odd, I'm a transfer student." Theo flicks Odd in the back of the head. "I took a leave from my other school while I was transferring here."
"Well that doesn't mean that's Yumi's reason for an extended leave. Her family could just be going on a trip to Japan." Ulrich pipes up.
"We still have three weeks left before summer break. Why would her parents decide to take a trip NOW instead of waiting till summer?" Theo responds.
"Maybe it's like a family emergency…" Odd counters.
"Then why would Yumi sound so happy about the leave?" Theo continues to play Devil's Advocate. "Here's an idea, let's just ask her." Theo stands up and gestures to the door Yumi walked in a few moments before.
"Let's go." Odd stands up and then offers Ulrich a hand to help pull him up. The three of them walk over to the door to wait for Yumi to come out but when they reach the door, the three can hear Yumi talking to Mrs. Charles, one of the English teachers.
"Well this sounds like an incredible opportunity, Yumi." Mrs. Charles gushes loudly.
"It is and to be honest, I've never REALLY fit in here and maybe Crossroads will give me something that I'm missing here." Yumi responds. "Leaving Kadic is a tough choice but it's one that I need to do. Even though the audition is still three weeks away, I need time to rehearse and that's the reason for the extended leave."
"Makes sense to me. Are you nervous?" Mrs. Charles shuffles some papers around.
"Of course I am because if I don't nail this audition then I'm gonna be stuck here at Kadic till I graduate. But my friends have faith in me and they're helping me."
"Are they hiring? Take me with you?" Mrs. Charles chuckles at her own little joke. "How are Odd, Ulrich, Jeremy and Aelita doing?" She asks.
"No idea. Haven't seen or talked to them in weeks. But I wasn't talking about them. I actually have friends that go to Crossroads and they're actually the ones who started this whole thing. I love them for giving me the opportunity but I'm also pissed at them for causing the insane amount of stress that I am currently experiencing." Yum sighs.
"Well that's what friends are for." Mrs. Charles chuckles. "I'll email you all the assignments and if you can get them done by the end of semester, we'll be good."
"Sounds good. Thanks again, Mrs. Charles." Yumi walks to the door. The boys quickly scramble to get away from the door and hide around the corner. Yumi exits the classroom, puts her headphones back on and walks toward the front gate. Odd, Theo and Ulrich all poke their heads around the corner to see Yumi walking away.
"Told ya." Theo says as he nudges Odd with his elbow. Odd sticks his tongue out at Theo before turning to his roommate.
"You okay, good buddy?" Odd asks, however the question falls on deaf ears. Ulrich can't believe what he just heard.
'Yumi's leaving…'