"…so this is a wonderful opportunity for our students to get to know what the music academy of our town has to offer. To make the best out of their co-operation, we have decided to commit tomorrow afternoon entirely for this. The academy's principal Mrs. Tune will explain more of tomorrow," principal Delmas explained to everyone gathered in the gym.

The brunette woman next to him took a step forward and started talking with a slight smile on her face.

"Tomorrow afternoon this gym will be filled with most of our teachers. Each will present their instrument and allow you to ask questions or even try playing…"

Odd was dozing off. Aelita, meanwhile, was somewhat interested. She had some experience being a DJ, but perhaps wider music knowledge would give her something useful for it. Yumi and Ulrich both seemed equally indifferent. Jeremie's focus was a couple rows of chairs further. Olivie was leaning forward on her chair, every now and then asking questions from the people next to her.

XANA had been completely passive the last couple weeks, so Jeremie had turned his attention to observing Olivie. Waiting for a slip-up to reveal something about her relations to XANA. But nothing suspicious. Showing genuine interest at school, asking a lot of questions, and slowly starting to seem more natural around people.

"…and with that, I'm really looking forward to tomorrow," Mrs. Tune concluded her explanation.

"Thank you, Mrs. Tune. Students, you're dismissed for today," Delmas said. Some students rushed out, while the interested ones lingered a bit. Olivie still sat down, asking her peers questions about where this academy is and other things about music. Concluding that there was nothing more to learn there, Jeremie left the gym as well.

The Lyoko warriors stayed outside the gym to share their thoughts.

"Well tomorrow's just set out to be boring. The only instruments I'm interested in are the electric ones and I have a feeling we won't be seeing any," Odd complained.

"Hey, I'm not exactly excited about it either, but much rather that than history class," Ulrich said.

Yumi chimed in, "Agreed. On another topic. I don't want to bring the mood down, but am I the only one worried about XANA and Olivie? There's been nothing new since she joined Kadic. I'm not complaining. Peace is always a good thing and all. But the silence is making me nervous."

Jeremie shook his head and replied, "No, you're not the only one. I've been keeping an eye on Olivie, but so far nothing seems out of place. No XANA marks, no evil behavior, no sudden lightning sparking from her hands, no nothing."

"Could it be that it really is just a coincidence and Lyoko Olivie and Earth Olivie aren't the same person after all?" Odd asked, though seemingly doubtful of it himself. And so were the rest.

"We had the Taelia incident back when Aelita was still on Lyoko, and Jeremie thought Taelia was Aelita. But this time all of us think that our Olivie is Lyoko Olivie," Ulrich pointed out. "Also, did you see the blue-grey skull on the back of her hoodie? The same as on Lyoko. So, I think this time–"

Their talking ceased instantly when Olivie walked out of the gym. She glanced at them and left in the other direction, crossing paths with William, who was heading towards the group.

"Hey, Yumi!" he called out. "We agreed to work on our science presentation today, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember." Yumi walked towards William but turned to wave to the others. "See you later!"

The rest of them waved back to Yumi before she continued to walk off with William. Ulrich wore a rather sour expression though.

"Come on, please don't tell me this is still going on?" Odd asked.

"Shut up," Ulrich replied.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Aelita timidly spoke up, "I know it doesn't really concern me, but I think you should speak with Yumi instead of just brooding these things on your own."

Ulrich frowned and left towards the dorms.

"I know you mean well, Aelita. It's just that when it comes to being stubborn, Ulrich beats the rest of us by a landslide," Jeremie said.

"Truer words have never been said…" Odd mused. "Honestly, William's an ok fellow. Has his flaws, but so does everyone else. Even me, dare I say. Though much less than most!"

"I was about to commend you for being smart for once. But after that last bit, never mind," Jeremie commented.

"I have my moments," Odd said with a wide grin.


The next morning Kadic was livelier than usual. Plenty of people walking in the school grounds and hallways carrying instrument cases of various shapes and sizes. Classes went on as normal despite that. Though, Mrs. Hertz's class was about sound waves and the production of sound to fit the musical theme of the day. Olivie seemed to be absorbing every single word of the lesson.

Afternoon arrived and everyone gathered at the gym again. The teachers of the music academy had each taken their place, and all in all there were about 15 of them. Most of the instruments were classical. String instruments, woodwinds, brass… But there were also drums, electric guitar and bass. As a nice surprise to many.

"Well, I know where I'm heading!" Odd exclaimed. Ulrich and Yumi also followed his lead. The three of them headed straight to the area where all the electric instruments were, while Jeremie and Aelita stayed back to take everything in.

"What do you plan to do?" Jeremie asked.

"Not sure yet," Aelita answered. "I might just walk around and take a look at everything. You?"

"Try to sneak away soon. This isn't exactly my thing, and I need to make improvements to the super scanner."

"But isn't this mandatory?"

"They won't notice one person missing, I'm sure."

"If you say so…"

Mrs. Tune clapped her hands twice and raised her voice to get everyone's attention.

"I see that most of you are already going around looking at things. We have, however, prepared a small demonstration for you all that we would like to perform now before letting you all roam around freely," she explained in a clear voice.

She looked around at all the teachers, who were preparing their instruments. After a short moment, Mrs. Tune gave the mark to begin playing and then continued to act as conductor.

The gym was filled with harmony. The piece started small, with only a couple string instruments. The acoustic guitar joined in, followed by the clarinet. Slowly the piece grew. One by one, each instrument joined in. At times, some stopped playing, giving room to the rest. The bass was giving support to the flute. Violin and viola gave the backing track for an electric guitar solo. The brass acted as the backbone of an epic drum solo. Somehow, all the different instruments complemented each other near perfectly.

When the piece came to an end, almost everyone was applauding loudly. Aelita among them.

"Wow!" she gasped. "Still think music's not your thing, Jeremie? …Jeremie?"

He was nowhere to be found. No doubt slipped away when everyone was focused on the teachers' demonstration. Aelita sighed and started walking around the gym. Someone caught her eye and she lingered nearby to see what was going on. Olivie was standing in front of the flutist, a younger man with light brown hair.

"What is that instrument called?" Olivie asked. "I liked its sound the most during that demonstration."

"I'm glad to hear that," the flutist said. "This is the flute."

"The flute… How does it function and produce a sound like that?"

"You blow air through here and the sound is produced by the air moving through the instrument."

"What are the buttons for?"

"The buttons? Oh. They're called keys. Depending on which keys you push down, you get a different note."

He played a major scale as an example. Olivie rubbed her chin in thought, eyes pinned to the flute.

"I brought some extra head joints with me today," the flutist said. "Would you like to try if you can get some sound out of it?"

Olivie nodded. The flutist handed her a flute head joint from a box behind him and asked her to give it a go. Olivie blew into it, but no sound came out of it.

"Is this broken? It doesn't seem to function," Olivie wondered. But the flutist smirked and shook his head.

"No. It's not broken. To get a clear sound from it, you need to blow air from a specific angle. Look closely."

He lifted the flute to his mouth again, to a specific spot. Pursed his lips and blew. And a clear C came out. Olivie tried to imitate it. Still no sound. She frowned a little and kept trying. First many short blows from different angles and with different power. Then one long blow and switching angles during it. It was only for a fraction of a second, and sounded distorted, but she got a note out of it. Surprised, she lowered the head joint and looked at it. Then slowly a small smile formed on her face.

The flutist applauded her, "Nicely done! It takes a lot of work at the beginning to manage to get a sound out of that."

"It is difficult…" Olivie conceded. "Why not make it simpler? That way it would be more efficient to play."

The flutist looked a little dumbfounded. No one had asked that question before. People had said it's difficult, yes. And hoped that it would be easier. But no one had ever spoken of efficiency before. He took a couple moments to form an answer.

"But don't you think it would then lose some of its unique sound? Because there is the specific angle, the specific way the air flows through it, the flute has its specific sound. And you said that you liked the sound, yes? If we change the instrument, we also change its sound and the way it makes people feel."

"The way it makes people feel?"

"Yes. How do you feel about the flute's sound?"

"I… I don't understand the question."

"When you heard the flute, how did it make you feel?"

"It, well, I wanted to know more about it."

"How would you describe the sound?"

"It is clear. Sharp. But also… soft. I don't know why or how to explain it, but it made my chest feel heavy and light at the same time."

The flutist smiled and nodded. Then more students approached him, and he turned his attention to all the people in front of him, rather than just Olivie. Though most of Olivie's attention seemed to be elsewhere for the moment.

Aelita, having heard the conversation between Olivie and the flutist, was deep in thought. When Olivie after a moment returned the head joint and started walking away, Aelita didn't hesitate and walked to her. Though she did quickly check if the rest of the Lyoko group saw her at that moment or not. She knew they wouldn't approve of her going to her alone, especially after all their talk on not to do that. But none of them were in Aelita's field of view.

"Hi, Olivie!" Aelita greeted with a smile when se reached Olivie.

"Oh, hi," Olivie greeted back, visibly confused.

"Enjoying the afternoon so far? I really liked their demonstration earlier."

"I have learned a lot. And it was impressive for certain."

"Nice! Are you a music person?"

"A music person…?"

"I mean, do you like music?"

Olivie turned her gaze to the floor for a bit before replying, "I am not too familiar with it. But based solely on this day, I have liked most of what I have heard."

"I see. I was new to it too when I came to Kadic. Then I found DJ'ing and it's really fun."

"What is that?"

Aelita got an idea. An idea the others wouldn't like. But she wanted to try it. And so, she gave Olivie a suggestion.

"If you want to know more, want to stop by my room after this music thing?" she asked. "I can play you some of my CDs and maybe something else as well?"

Olivie turned to look at Aelita with furrowed brows.

"I suppose I could."

"Awesome! Let's meet then!" Aelita said and sprinted off before Yumi, Ulrich or Odd got a chance to see her talking to Olivie. Who was now standing there alone and confused.

Even though Aelita was nervous of the others finding out what she had done, she was smiling.


There was a knock on Aelita's door. She sprung to her feet excited and rushed to open the door.

"Hey, Oli–," she started, but stopped when seeing Jeremie and Yumi. "Um, hey, all!" she corrected.

"Hey, Aelita," Yumi greeted. "Want to join us for dinner? Odd and Ulrich went ahead."

"Um, I'm not really hungry. I got some inspiration from the music teachers and want to try something for my mixes," Aelita told them.

Jeremie seemed confused. "It's not like you to skip dinner. Are you alright?"

"Yes, perfectly fine. No need to worry about me," Aelita said with a smile.

Jeremie and Yumi raised eyebrows but then left Aelita by herself.

After a few minutes someone was at the door again, and Aelita thanked her luck that Jeremie and Yumi were the first to come knocking. She opened the door and this time it was Olivie.

"Hey, Olivie!" she greeted. "Come on in."

"Hi, Aelita," Olivie greeted her back and walked into the room.

Aelita knelt down and opened the drawer under her bed. She had to move stuff around a bit before finding what she was looking for. With a victorious look she got up and presented a CD to Olivie.

"So, on there you have some of your own music?" Olivie asked.

"Yup. Have a seat," Aelita said and gestured to her bed.

Olivie timidly sat down, as if to be careful not to wrinkle the bedsheets. Meanwhile Aelita grabbed her laptop and entered the CD. She sat cross-legged on the bed as well and placed her laptop in between her and Olivie. She pressed play.

The two of them shared no words while songs switched and played. Aelita started to feel nervous and wondered whether she should break the silence or not. But Olivie seemed content, so Aelita decided to stay quiet. Olivie's eyes were closed. Her face the spitting image of focus.

When the last song ended, Aelita cautiously moved the laptop into her lap and then turned to face Olivie. "What did you think?" she asked.

"It was different from the instruments from earlier," Olivie said. "It didn't feel… alive in the same way, but it still was so. I enjoyed hearing it. It made me want to listen more closely, because it seemed like many different things were happening at the same time. It… I'm sorry, I'm not responding properly, am I."

"No need to apologize. I asked what you thought, and you answered. There's no right or wrong answer."

"Oh. But what if I didn't enjoy it?"

"Nothing wrong with that, we're all different."

"I… see."

Olivie became silent and turned her gaze down. Aelita couldn't quite name the expression but closest was probably something between puzzled and lost.

Aelita gave Olivie a few moments of quiet to let her think and then asked her, "You said you hadn't listened to much music, right?"

Olivie nodded.

"Have you listened to anything with lyrics?" Aelita then asked.

Olivie shook her head. "What are lyrics?"

"They're words sung on top of the music. Like, the singer turns their voice into an instrument and the words give the song more meaning," Aelita tried to explain.

"I'm not sure I understand," Olivie said.

"In that case…" Aelita said and went back to her drawer. After some more shoving things around, she got up and handed Olivie a CD.

"The Subsonics?" Olivie said confused.

"Yeah. They're really popular right now. Though there's been talk that they'll soon change their name to the Subdigitals. But the music is the same still."

"Are you giving this to me?" Olivie asked, still very confused.

"I want to borrow it to you. Yumi borrowed it to me, but I'm sure she wont mind," Aelita said. Although she was quite sure that Yumi would in fact mind.

"Alright. When do you want it back?"

"Yumi said that there's no hurry. So, I want it back in… no hurry, minus one day," Aelita replied and smiled.

The smallest hint of a smile made its way to Olivie's face.

"Thank you for lending it to me. I will take good care of it and make sure to return it," Olivie said and got up from the bed, making her way to the door.

"Okay. I hope you like it!" Aelita said.

Olivie nodded and opened the door. Right before going, she turned to face Aelita again.

"And thank you for playing your music to me and inviting me here," she said.

"Anytime," Aelita said, her smile widening even further as Olivie closed the door behind her and left.

There's no way she wants to hurt us, Aelita thought. Right...?


Later that evening, when the sun had already set, Olivie put the last textbook into her schoolbag, closed it, and placed it neatly next to her desk. She had finished all her homework and was ready for tomorrow. She yawned and felt her eyes became slightly heavier. Her gaze then fell on a CD on the desk, the one Aelita gave her. Slowly she took it in her hands and read the name "Subsonics" once again.

She grabbed her laptop and earphones from the desk and walked to her bed. She sat down and crossed her legs. She inserted the CD and put the earphones on. She pressed play. Much the same as before with Aelita, Olivie closed her eyes as the songs played and switched. She listened closely to the lyrics, letting them take her full attention. It almost felt to her as if the album created one large song with its own story, even though she didn't fully understand what that story was about. But certain words stuck out more than others.

My ears are full of brand new sounds, my head is spinning round and round… …Where is this sun, where is this light, where are the limits of our minds …Little angel trapped inside this dream… …In a secret life… In a secret life… …Why am I confined so high in this costume that makes me cry… Gotta break away… …Being sensible is just not sensible… Life, life, help me follow life wherever it goes… …There's many things I have to learn, and many friends I'll need in turn… …I hope that there will be a day where I could join you straight away… …The wind, it conjures all its scents… For this Earth I'm really meant …You feel alone, you want to cry…

The final song ended, and Olivie opened her eyes. She wasn't quite sure what all the lyrics meant, but she was certain that her senses enjoyed the songs. They made her feel something unique, something completely new. It was as if the songs were speaking straight to her heart. It was a little painful in a way, but she felt seen and understood in a way she couldn't understand yet.

Feeling something fall, she touched her cheek to see what it was.

Why is there water coming from my eyes…?

Before she could think on it more, she was startled out of her thoughts by XANA's mark appearing on her laptop screen along with a popup simply titled "report."