A Shooting Star by Lani
Summary: One of Odd's random whims leads his friends into a journey they probably won't ever forget.
Categories: Seasons, Seasons > Season 3 Characters: Aelita Hopper, Jeremie Belpois, Odd Della Robbia, Ulrich Stern, Yumi Ishiyama
Genres: Action/Adventure, General
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 5 Completed: No Word count: 5635 Read: 15105 Published: Sep 02, 2006 Updated: Sep 04, 2006

1. The Whim by Lani

2. The Rehearsal by Lani

3. The Modification by Lani

4. The Judges by Lani

5. The Result by Lani

The Whim by Lani
Author's Notes:

Yup! Some of you may remember this... But I warn you that I'll be slowly updating this, cause 1. I need inspiration, and 2. I'm probably going to rewrite most of it.

ANYWAY. I don't own Code Lyoko! I don't own Houkiboshi by Younha, either. But you should really listen to the song cause it's pure awesomeness :P

Yumi thanked Rosa and stepped into the cafeteria’s open space. She quickly scanned the room for her friends when she caught Ulrich’s eye, who in turn motioned for her to join them. She smiled as she approached. “Hey,” she said as she sat down, picking up her fork as she did so. “Hey… where’s Odd?”

Ulrich shrugged. “He ran off right after class back to the room,” he replied. “He wouldn’t tell me.”

Yumi opened her mouth to reply, when a loud voice made her jump. “Surprise!” They all turned to their scrawny friend as he stood at the end of the table, tray in hand, waving several papers in their face. “Guess what I found!”

“Something useless, probably,” Jeremie said, mouth full.

“This is not useless,” Odd stuck his tongue out and sat down beside Yumi. “It’s an application form for a band competition!”

“A band competition?” Ulrich repeated, raising his eyebrow. “What kind of a competition is a band competition? Besides, we don’t even have our own band.”

The little blonde mutt made his ‘you’re stupid’ face at Ulrich and made a screwing motion with his fingers at his temples. “Uh, hello? Ulrich, how bad is your memory? We made a band at the end of the first term!” He jerked his thumb in the direction of Sissi’s table. “Nicholas was our drummer, remember?”

“Oh, right,” Ulrich rolled his eyes and shook his head. Of course he remembered. They hadn’t met after that first formation, and his mind had been elsewhere for the past several months…

“Well, what is this band competition?” Aelita smiled and leaned forward a little, definitely interested.

For once, completely ignoring his food, Odd set down the papers and quickly scanned it. “Well,” he began. “In participating countries, France being one of them, each area holds its own competition with those bands interested. They choose three winners from each participating area, and then they go to nationals. They choose one or two winners from nationals and that leads them to the international competition, which is held in Tokyo!” He grinned. “You guys interested?”

“Tokyo?” Yumi turned completely to Odd’s direction. “You mean Japan, right?” Odd nodded in response, and a small smile appeared on Yumi’s lips. Trying to hide it, she quickly turned back to her food and continued to eat.

“Oh wow, traveling!” Aelita exclaimed, resting on the table. “I’d love to go with you guys. Could I join the band?”

“Well, what would she do?” Ulrich asked, lazily pointing at Odd with his fork. “We’ve already got a vocalist, pianist, drummer, guitarist… What else would we need?”

Odd glanced at Ulrich, at Aelita, then back at Ulrich. “Um, well…” he thought for a second, softly tapping his chin. “I got it. Aelita, you make a great DJ. I wouldn’t mind it if we had someone to add cool effects or add more sounds! Like the effect of having an orchestra in the background, adding more bass, or making it seem like we have more guitars, or…”

“Aelita, don’t do it,” Jeremie protested, folding his arms. “You don’t know what you’re getting into! What if XANA attacks while we’re away? There will be no one here to take care of him!” He frowned as Aelita shrunk back a little and Ulrich and Yumi gave a sigh. Odd leaned forward and began to tap on the table.

“Did you forget something, Einstein?” he said. “XANA escaped from the computer, so now he can attack wherever he wants! And he’s not going to attempt to take over the world without trying to take care of us first. So even if we are in Japan, he’d make a friendly trip over there and greet us like old friends!”

Jeremie sighed as Aelita nodded in agreement, her calm smile gracing her face. “He’s got a point, Jeremie. And plus, we do need a break once in a while, right? Today’s the last day of school. We can go talk to Nicholas once lunch is over and see if he agrees to it, okay? You can come along, too.”

The little genius gave a heavy sigh. “Fine, you guys win. Just, if he attacks, don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

Lunch had ended and Odd confronted Sissi’s group. He asked Nicholas if he was interested, and he was, but Sissi was determined to go along, and in turn Herb wanted to go as well. Even though he was slightly frustrated that there were more people to take care of than needed, Odd accepted and met his friends out in the courtyard.

“What kind of song should we write?” Yumi asked.

Sitting himself on the ground, Odd shrugged. “No idea. We’re not allowed to use any pre-existing songs, though.”

“Someone’s going to have to write the lyrics,” Aelita said. “We can’t exactly make up a song without the feel of the lyrics.”

“Oh, then in that case, I’ll do that!” Odd grinned.

“Uh, no.” Ulrich gave a look at the smaller. “With the stuff you come up with, I don’t think we’ll even get past auditions.”

“But there are no auditions.”

“Exactly.”

There was a short silence as Ulrich smirked a smirk of victory as Odd sat dumbfounded, his brain trying to process what he just said. Jeremie, Aelita, and Yumi giggled.

“Well, if the finals are taking place in Japan, why not have me write them?” Yumi offered. “I’m not the best songwriter, but give me a night and I’ll think up something.”

“It’s settled, then,” Ulrich butted in without waiting for Odd’s consent. “Odd, you mail in the form tonight, and tomorrow we’ll meet in the gym at three, is that okay?”

The others agreed to this plan. The boarders headed off to Jeremie’s room as Yumi headed home.

 

~~~

Odd collapsed on the lone bed, right beneath Jeremie’s picture of Einstein, Ulrich leaned on the nearby desk and Aelita knelt beside Jeremie’s chair. “What are you up to now?” She asked curiously.

“If we’re going to travel, we need to bring the supercomputer with us in a way,” Jeremie began to type. “And since XANA’s free of the supercomputer, there’s no way deactivating towers on Lyoko will help us.”

“So what do you have in mind?” Ulrich raised his eyebrow, slightly afraid of the outcome.

“I’m going to try to combine some of your virtual traits to your human traits so it’d be easier to fight here on Earth,” he said, not taking his eyes off the screen. “I gave it a lot of thought, and I think it wouldn’t be too bad.”

“Woah, woah,” Odd sat himself up. “I sense a crazy experiment, Einstein,” he warned. “You better run about a thousand test runs before I decide to be modified.”

Jeremie paused and swiveled around to face Odd. “I was planning on running a thousand test runs. There’s no way I would risk your lives because of my stupidity.” With that, he turned back to his screen and continued programming.

“So, what exactly do you mean by ‘combining virtual traits with our human traits’?” Aelita asked, completely curious and watching the programming dash across the screen.

“Well, look at it this way: When the program is finished, I’ll ask Ulrich to get into the scanner to modify him. What I’d do is add his super fast speed into his human traits. When the modification is done, he’ll be able to run almost as fast as his avatar. Unfortunately, normal human traits like strain and exhaustion will still exist, because there’s nothing I can do about that.”

There was a short pause before Odd got up and leaned over Jeremie’s shoulder. “What about me?”

“Er, well, logically, you’d be like a cat.”

Ulrich snorted and Aelita smiled. Odd was quiet as he frowned at Jeremie, who wasn’t paying any attention to him. “And next you’ll tell me I’ll grow a tail and ears, right?”

“Hah, I’m not going that far,” Jeremie finished typing up one line and turned to his friend. “…Unless you want me to…” he said slowly.

Frowning, Odd stood up straight. “Yeah, the chances of me letting you do that is about as big of a chance as me passing a math test!”

Aelita giggled and leaned back so she had a better view of Odd. “You know, if you put your mind to it, I’d guess that’d be a pretty big chance!”

Odd huffed and lay back down on the bed, his back facing them. “You know I was joking, Odd,” Jeremie said loudly. There was no response for a short while.

“I’m not talking to you!”

 

 

~~~

“Gochisousama deshita,” (I’m finished eating.) Yumi said quietly, standing up and taking her plate to the sink.

"Dezaato wo tabemasen ka?" (Don't you want desert?) She heard her mother call after her.

“Aa, chotto..." she trailed off. "Totemo nemuin da yo…” (No, I’m too tired) she gave a slight nod to her parents as she closed the door behind her. “Oyasumi.” (G’night) Without waiting for a response, she quietly jogged up to her room and sat at her desk. She grabbed a pencil and several sheets of blank paper. She leaned over the papers and breathed in the cool summer night air. What should she write about? It had to be something that would let her visit her home country for a bit, even if only a week. Tapping her pencil on her cheek, she thought. It had to be something that they all could relate to her, or something she needed to get out of her system. She curiously watched as she saw a shooting star leave a faint trail across the black sky and gave a sigh. ‘If only I could become a shooting star…’ she thought to herself, when it suddenly clicked to her. A song that anyone could relate to, but a song that she alone was letting out of her system, a song in which she was indirectly confessing…

Licking her lips, she leaned over her paper and began to write.

“Alone, I saw a shooting star in the night sky…”

 

The Rehearsal by Lani
Author's Notes:

I really apologize for the crappiness of this chapter >< It's kinda boring, and it's kind of hard trying to write about people performing... But I hope you find that the following chapter is more enjoyable.

Anyway, same disclaimer applies to here as did the first chapter. I don't own Code Lyoko and let's just keep it that way ;P

Oh yeah, one last thing: I REALLY apologize for Sissi's attitude xDD; It kind of slipped my mind while I was writing this that it's post S2 and she should be much nicer. Oops ^^;

The band members, including Jeremie, Herb, and Sissi, all met the next day in the empty gym. It was lonely; being the first day of summer vacation, but none of them had left yet. Yumi, being the only non-boarder, turned to Odd and asked, “So, did you send the form in?”

“Yup, I sure did,” he replied. “Oh, and guess what? The regional competition takes place in about three weeks. We don’t have much time. Did you get the lyrics done?” The Japanese girl nodded and showed him her draft paper, filled with scribbles and all written in Japanese. “You know I can’t read that,” Odd reminded her. Yumi nodded.

“I know, but wouldn’t we want to impress our judges that we’re not singing just in French?” she asked. “Plus, if I translated this into French, it’d just sound bad.”

Odd shrugged. “Suit yourself. What kind of tune do you have in mind?” Yumi gave him a sample of what the first verse and the chorus sounded like. He re-plucked them onto his guitar. “D major, huh? That’s easy enough. All we have to do is think up supporting lines to go along with it!”

“I’m no good at improv,” Ulrich muttered, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Aelita sympathetically patted him on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry,” she reassured him. “I’m sure Odd will think up something for you.”

“Just one thing,” Yumi said. She held out her paper and pointed to a stanza shorter than all the rest. “Here I just want a vocal and piano duet. Nothing that covers the piano up, okay?”

Odd nodded. “Okay then! I’ll go whip up some basics then let you guys pick out the specifics for yourself.” He set his guitar and rushed out of the gym. The other three not in the band came over.

“What’s this song about, huh? Yumi?” Sissi inquired, leaning forward and raising an eyebrow at her rival. Yumi backed up a bit.

“I just saw a shooting star last night and that’s what inspired me,” Yumi said slowly.

Sissi gave a laugh. “A shooting star? You wrote a song about a shooting star? Hah! Like that’ll get you anywhere.”

“Uh, well…”

“Cool it, Sissi,” Ulrich intervened. “None of us know exactly what the song’s about. It’s in Japanese, and only Yumi and her country would know what she’s talking about.”

“I’ll bet it’s the worst song ever invented,” Sissi muttered, sitting back down in her chair.

“It doesn’t sound all that bad…” Nicholas began, but shrank back when he saw Sissi’s menacing glare.

“Well, I don’t know about you guys,” Jeremie stood up and approached them. “I’ve got a feeling Odd will be taking a really long time. I’m going to my room to work on the program. See you guys later.”

Yumi stared after him and turned to Aelita and Ulrich, confusion written all over her face. “What program?” Aelita gave a soft giggle as Ulrich shook his head slowly.

“We’ll tell you later.”

Quite some time had passed and the others were getting restless before Odd finally returned, out of breath from running. “Sorry I took so long,” he apologized. “I was in the middle of writing it when Kiwi needed to use the bathroom.” He gave each of the band members a piece of paper with crudely written notes scribbled on it.

“Odd, I can barely read this,” Ulrich complained as he sat down at the piano bench, slowly fingering out the guide notes.

“Live with it.” Odd threw his music on the floor and strapped his guitar around his shoulder. Nicholas took his place behind the drum set and began to look the music over. “Shall we begin?”

Music filled the gymnasium. Although it wasn’t good music, one could tell there was some effort put into it. Odd and Nicholas really stood out; Odd knew what he was doing and Nicholas, being the great drummer he was, was completely under control and never missed a beat. Ulrich, on the other hand, was tripping over his fingers. He couldn’t keep up with the tempo, and on top of that couldn’t read what Odd had written.

Yumi’s hands began to tremble as they approached the vocal and piano duet. She shouldn’t be this nervous. Nobody in this room knew what the song was about, but she couldn’t help but feel like they knew exactly what she was saying. She took a deep breath as the part approached.

“A-Anata wa itsumo hito...ri, n-nanika to…” She blanked out. Odd turned to her direction and raised an eyebrow, and she quickly composed herself. She continued singing, trying to ignore what the lyrics meant to her.

The song was over quickly, and without waiting for the sound to stop echoing within the room, Ulrich spoke up. “You’re going to have to help me decipher this, Odd,” he said. “It looks like a two-year-old wrote it.”

Odd shrugged. “It sounded fine to me.”

“I don’t know about you guys,” Yumi began, sitting down in the nearest chair. “It sounded kind of like… it was missing something.”

“Aelita didn’t do anything,” Nicholas pointed at the pink-haired girl. “That’s probably why.”

Aelita shrugged defensively. “I’m not good at improv, either. I wasn’t told what to do and it’s not like I can make up something to go along with something already existing.”

Odd gave a small sigh in frustration. “We’ll work out something later. But for now, we’re going to have to keep practicing. Three weeks may seem like a short time, but in reality, it’s not.” The others stared at him for a bit with confused looks on their faces. He waved them off. “Let’s get going.” They once again began to play, preparing themselves for a long night.

It was about six thirty when they finished rehearsing; all of them exhausted and eardrums almost blasted out because of one reckless Odd moment. They thanked each other and quickly packed up their stuff. Nicholas, Sissi, and Herb were the first ones to leave while the rest of them tidied up the place a little. Yumi plopped onto a nearby chair and leaned back, taking a swig of water. “So, what’s this program Jeremie mentioned earlier?” she asked.

They all stood looking at each other with questioning looks on their faces, when Aelita spoke up. “Oh! Jeremie’s designing a program that will help the battle against XANA easier here on earth,” she explained. “He’s trying to get it finished if or when we leave for Japan.”

“You mean he’s staying here?”

“We should convince him to come with us,” Ulrich suggested. “That way, if XANA decides to attack Jeremie, we’ll be there to protect him, and we won’t regret it later.”

“Good plan,” Odd nodded in agreement.

“Well, I’m going to get heading home now,” Yumi said, standing herself up and stretching. “I like the idea, by the way. Jeremie’s pretty smart.” She waved to them and headed out the doors. “See you tomorrow.”

“Speaking of him, we should go check on Jeremie,” Aelita said. “He’s been up there for hours, and his eyes are probably strained by now.”

“Nah, this is nothing,” Odd waved his hand. “While you were still trapped on Lyoko, he’d spend like an entire weekend working on your materialization program.”

Aelita blushed a little and Ulrich chuckled as they followed Odd out of the gym. They made their way across the courtyards and towards the dorms, where they practically raced up the stairs and burst out of breath into their friend’s room. The only light source in Jeremie’s room was the bright glow of his computer monitor. Aelita flipped on the light which was followed by a little yelp of surprise from Jeremie’s end. “You’ll strain your eyes like that,” she scolded. Jeremie just shook his head and ignored her. The three approached him and watched his screen. “Whatcha up to?”

“What do you think? I’m working on your programs.” He said simply.

“You know, Einstein, you should come with us,” Odd said, leaning forward some more. “If we go to Japan, that is.”

“Yeah, you never know,” Ulrich said. “If XANA decides to attack here and you’re here, you’ve got no one to protect you!”

“…Well that was straightforward.” The little computer nerd saved his progress and stood to stretch. “I’ll see. Money’s kind of a problem. I’m not exactly the richest person and plane tickets to Japan aren’t exactly cheap, you know.”

“That’s your polite way of saying ‘no’,” Odd pointed an accusing finger at him.

Aelita smiled. “I’m sure if we make it past nationals then they’ll provide the tickets for us. I would think that a lot of poorer bands are entering this competition.”

Jeremie just shrugged. “I’ll see. I’d really like to get this program finished, first.”

“How long do you think it’ll take you?” Ulrich asked.

“Hopefully in a couple of weeks,” Jeremie replied, heading towards his door. “At the rate I’m going, I think I’ll be done with at least two of them by Sunday.” He turned the door knob and slipped into the hallway. “I’m going to eat. Coming?”
The Modification by Lani
Author's Notes:

Yup! The third chapter (second one I've added tonight, I can't sleep D: ). I hope you find this one more interesting than the last one, because I sure do, haha.

Anyway, same disclaimer, yadda yadda.

There he sat, elbow on his desk, chin in his palm, and forefinger tapping softly on his cheek, staring blankly at the blinking cursor on his screen. He gave a sigh, and gave a small shake of his mouse. He felt as if he wasn’t getting anywhere. He had told them that he’d be done by tomorrow, but he’d suddenly met a bump in Ulrich’s program, and couldn’t seem to get around it. Not knowing what else to do, he inserted some random programming and hit tested it. He watched as the test run began, and sighed again as he felt another failure come on. To his surprise, he jumped as the computer beeped, and showed a green plus sign, symbolizing a success. “Yes!” he whispered as he burned the program onto a CD. The CD popped out of the drive and quickly scribbled “Ulrich” onto it, and neatly set it on top of the other programs. Giving himself a small smile, he yawned, and pulled off his glasses. He plopped himself onto his bed, and before he knew it, was fast asleep.

Sunday morning, Odd and Ulrich were the only ones in the cafeteria, both of them silently eating their food. Two weeks had passed by fairly quickly, and both of them were slightly nervous for next week’s first round. The little blonde was practically lying on the table, stirring the extra milk from his cereal bowl while singing some unnamed song. Ulrich was slowly nibbling at some toast while staring out the window, caught in his own thoughts. They both jumped when they heard a foreign noise.

“Good morning, you two.” They both turned to see Aelita, a banana and some juice in hand. She sat down beside Odd and looked at the two. “You guys are awfully quiet this morning,” she stated, pointing out the obvious. “What’s up?”

“Tiiiiired,” Odd moaned, head-desking the table.

“Eh,” Ulrich just shrugged. “Just thinking.”

“Well, I do have something to say,” she said, a smile tugging at her lips. “On my way down here this morning, Jeremie stopped me. And guess what he had to say…?”

Odd shot up, excitement dancing in his eyes. “You mean…”

She nodded, taking a bite of her banana. “Yup! He went straight to the factory, and he wants all of us to meet us there as soon as possible.”

“That’s great,” Odd stood, picking up his bowl. “Come on Aelita, let’s go.”

“You two go on ahead,” Ulrich waved his hand. “I’ll go get Yumi, and we’ll meet you there in a bit.”

 




Ulrich and Yumi stepped out as the elevator doors slid open, and as they entered they found Jeremie, Aelita, and Odd already there, leaning over Jeremie’s shoulder as he explained something.

“Hey Einstein,” Ulrich said, standing behind Odd.

“You’re done with the program, huh,” Yumi leaned on his chair, intrigued.

“Yes, I am,” he nodded slowly. “See, I was just explaining to Odd and Aelita, that what I did to make this program was no easy task, but kind of like the antivirus I was developing for Aelita not too long ago. But see, the differences are, that instead of-“

“Please,” Odd held up his hand. “Don’t start speaking in C++, we can’t understand it.”

“But I don’t-“

Odd made something akin to a quacking noise as he shook his head. “I don’t want to hear it.” He turned on his heel towards the elevator door. “I just want to get this party started.” Jeremie gave a sigh and waved the other two on.

“You guys go on.” They nodded and followed after Odd. Aelita turned to Jeremie, her eyes asking if she could follow. He gave her the nod of approval and she also followed.

“Get ready guys,” Jeremie’s voice echoed throughout the scanner room. “Get in the scanners, the program will start in a minute!” The three gave each other nervous glances; they certainly didn’t want to end up like Aelita when she became invisible! Except maybe in Odd’s case. They each stepped in their respective scanners while their onlooker sat in the middle, giving them reassuring smiles. “The program’s starting…” They each tensed and shut their eyes as they waited for Jeremie’s conclusion. “…Now.”

The scanner doors shut suddenly on each of them, and even though it was surprising, Ulrich was the only one to jump. They heard the whir of the scanners working, and felt the strong wind which seemingly came from nowhere. It felt nearly as painful as being virtualized, but much, much stranger. It felt as though someone was poking them wherever necessary; Ulrich in the legs, Yumi in the back and thighs, and Odd felt this around his joints. They each began to feel looser, and more relaxed, as if the continuous poking had turned into a massage. The feeling was no longer strange, but relaxing. As they were growing used to the feeling, the whir of the scanners slowed to a stop and the wind disappeared, having them once again land on their feet as the doors opened. The first one to slump to the ground was Odd, since he wasn’t used to the sudden flexibility in his joints he was given.

“Woah,” he murmured, as he noted he could curl up into a ball like he couldn’t before. Just to experiment, he got on all fours and ran around as a cat like he did on Lyoko. He stopped short of the elevator and sat. “Jeremie, you’re right!” he exclaimed. “You really did make me like a cat…”

Yumi stepped out slowly, trying not to bend over, trying to get used to the gymnast-like qualities she had acquired in less than thirty seconds. She rubbed her back, as if trying to let the feeling sink in. “Yeah, you really did great,”

Feeling as though his legs had gotten much stronger and tenser, Ulrich also rubbed them. “This feels weird, Jeremie,” he said slowly. “Are you sure you didn’t mess up somewhere?”

“Oh come on, Ulrich,” Odd said lightly. “You’ve just been changed into the fastest person in the world in like one millisecond. How can you not feel weird?” Ulrich just grunted, and the four returned to the lab room.

“I’m glad this is all working out,” Aelita beamed. They stepped into the lab and she was the first one by Jeremie’s side. “Jeremie, you did a wonderful job! In two weeks especially, I’m very proud of you.”

Jeremie looked up at her with wide eyes and blushed a little. “Uh, th-thanks, Aelita! It was nothing really…”

“I hope this wasn’t for nothing,” Yumi said, crossing her arms. “If it turns out that we’re not going to be fighting in the real world, I’m going to be very disappointed.”

“Well, it could be useful for other things,” Odd pointed out. “Take Ulrich, for example. He could go join Kadic’s track team, and be our gold medalist. Right, Ulrich?”

“That’s silly,” Ulrich said. “I’m not going to use it for stuff like that. It’s for XANA, and XANA only. I’m not going to take advantage of it.”

“Well you should,” Jeremie said, taking off his headset and placing it on the keyboard. “Especially in a tight situation, don’t hesitate.”

 




Odd sat on his bed, reading comics, since there was nothing else to do. It was late afternoon, Yumi was at home, Ulrich was outside on the track, Jeremie was on his computer, and heavens knew where Aelita was. He gave a sigh as he flipped the page. That morning had definitely been a surprising one, and since he returned back to the dorm, Kiwi seemed slightly frightened of him.

The little blonde jumped as he heard a sudden knock at the door. Setting down his comic, he got up and opened it, to find Jim standing there. “Uh, hey Jim! What’s up?” He noted a long, white envelope in his hands.

“This came in the mail for you,” he said, handing it to him. “I hope it’s your parents so you can go home.” And with that he walked off. Odd raised his eyebrow at where he was just standing and slowly closed the door. He plopped himself on his bed as he opened it eagerly. The letter was not from his parents, sadly, but rather from the organization running the competition! He read it over quickly to see what was up.

The letter congratulated their group because their registration has been completed, and they have been accepted into the competition. It also described what kind of aspects they were looking for in this first round: musicality, technique, lyrics, style, and most important of all, communication. Finally, the letter specified the location, date, and time of the first judging. Nodding in understanding, Odd slipped the paper under his pillow, where he definitely wouldn’t forget it.

 



The group met the next day, and Odd was the last one to arrive, having slept in. He sat himself in a chair and waved around the letter he received. “The organization sent me a letter saying we’ve been accepted!”

“That’s great,” Yumi smiled. “All our hard work isn’t going to waste.”

“Yeah, but not only that, our first round is this Friday.”

“This Friday?” Ulrich exclaimed, whirling around on the piano bench. “That’s so soon! I mean, I don’t even have this part down yet!” He motioned to Odd’s crude score and Ulrich’s messy notes written all over it.

Odd shrugged. “Stay after and practice late. No big deal to that.” He turned his attention back to the letter. “And they say here that they’re gonna judge us on our musicality, technique, style, lyrics, and communication. I don’t know what they mean by communication, but okay…” he shrugged.

“I think what they’re trying to say is how well we make contact with each other while we’re playing,” Aelita suggested.

“Like they do in string quartets,” Nicholas added, nodding his head.

“I see,” Odd glanced at the paper. “And I think we definitely win in the lyrics category! I mean, how big of a chance do you have kids from France singing in Japanese, huh?” There was a silence. “I thought so…”

“Well, we shouldn’t waste any time,” Ulrich turned back to his music, and placed his hands lightly on the keys. “If this first round is on Friday, then we definitely have to get moving.”

Odd got himself up off the chair and proceeded to tune his guitar. “Yes sir, whatever you say…”

That last week in the home stretch, they practiced like crazy. They usually met around 10 in the morning, had lunch break for a bit at 12, and ended their rehearsal around 4. Ulrich stayed after every day to practice his own part, and one day didn’t return to his dorm until 9. Yumi would sing until she almost lost her voice; Odd practiced one run so many times that two of his fingers began to bleed; Nicholas received blisters; and Aelita gave herself a headache from her mixer. Despite it all though, by Thursday evening, their song sounded wonderful, and they broke early, rewarding themselves with a good night’s sleep.

 

 



Friday morning, they were all pumped and ready to go. They had received notice in the middle of the week that they would provide the instruments they needed. Jeremie was convinced to come to the first judging, but they couldn’t get a hold of Sissi, sadly. She was apparently out of town. The group sat out in the courtyard, trying to figure out how much time it would take to get there and how much it would cost. Odd was studying a bus route map.

“If we take this line, it’ll take less time, but cost more money,” he said. “But see, if we take this one then it’ll take more time, but less money… hmm…” He stroked his chin.

“You know, if we all pitch in, then we’d probably be able to make the faster one,” Yumi pointed out. “I brought lots of money from home, here,” she dug some out of her pocket and placed it on the bench.

“Not a bad idea,” Ulrich agreed as he placed his own money onto the bench.

Odd counted out the money. “Just a little more and we should have enough for a round trip.” Nicholas complied and put some down as well. Odd nodded. “Good!” he exclaimed. “Now let’s go catch that bus.”

The majority of the ride there was quiet, each of them becoming increasingly nervous as they got nearer. Except Jeremie, he was too busy on his laptop doing whatever Lyoko or XANA business he usually does. Aelita and Ulrich sat on either side of him, making sure that no one would be able to see what he was up to.

After a bit of a ride, the group finally arrived. The building was big, and seemed like a high school. They entered and were greeted by several staff.

“Um, we’re here for the uh… band competition?” Odd said nervously, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

A man with a clipboard nodded his head and scanned his list. “Band name?”

“Um… Pop-Rock Progressives…”

He checked something and pointed down a hallway. “That way, sir. And good luck.” They followed his finger and thanked him.

They followed the signs posted on the hallway walls until they reached a large classroom, where many other people of many ages sat silently, waiting for their turn. They took some empty seats in the back. Nicholas ran off to the bathroom as the Lyoko team huddled together.

“It’s almost been a month since XANA escaped,” Yumi said. “And there’s been no attack from him… what’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” Jeremie said. “But the more time the better. I need to figure out a way to detect XANA’s attacks. The superscan isn’t much use to us anymore, since he’s obviously not going to be using towers anymore…”

“You’re right,” Ulrich nodded in agreement. “This could be tough this time around. We won’t know if it’s a XANA attack or not, or if it’s just some strange happening.”

“But still,” Odd butted in. “That’s what makes it all the more fun! The less we know, the more exciting and suspenseful it makes it.” They spotted Nicholas re-entering the room and they broke their huddle, and sat silently like everyone else in the room.

A while had passed, and another man with a clipboard came into the room. He scanned it then called out, “Odd Della Robbia, Ulrich Stern, Yumi Ishiyama, Nicholas Poliokoff, and Aelita Stones?” The five got up, and Jeremie flashed them a thumbs up sign as they exited the room.

“Let me see, you need an electric guitar, piano, drumset, and a… mixing board? Is this correct?” the man asked them. They nodded in response, and he led them even further down the hallway until they reached some double doors. He pushed them open for the group, and they were surprised when they saw a small stage ready for them. Aelita fiddled a bit with the mixing board, Nicholas took his place at the drums, Ulrich played a quick scale, and Odd tuned his six-stringed instrument. Yumi turned on the mike and blew into it, and was pleased to hear it working nicely. They each glanced each other, then straightened up and faced the judges. There were three of them, an old lady, a young woman, and a middle-aged man. The young woman smiled at them and nodded.

“Ready whenever you are.”

 

The Judges by Lani
Author's Notes:

Yes, this is the Fourth chapter!! It's kinda boring, and may sound a bit like gibberish if you're not familiar with some musical terms ^^; I'm terribly sorry, also...

Yep, same disclaimer, no need to repeat...

Enjoy!! 

Last time: They each glanced each other, then straightened up and faced the judges. There were three of them, an old lady, a young woman, and a middle-aged man. The young woman smiled at them and nodded.

“Ready whenever you are.”


The group exchanged nervous glances with each other, and Odd took a deep breath, nodding slowly, signaling he was ready to go. He made a bit of a bobbing motion with his head before taking a sharp breath, signaling his pickup. They started their intro; Yumi closed her eyes and listened for her cue to begin. She heard it, and began to sing. She was even more surprised when she didn’t feel her voice crack as she started. Happy with herself, she kept her eyes closed and let her feelings escape through her mouth.

Aelita glanced up during her short rest. She noticed that everyone else had their eyes closed. Not only that, she managed to sneak a peek at the judges. They were smiling! Glad that they were satisfied with their performance, she looked back down and came in when she was supposed to.

After the song had finished, the three judges applauded as Odd and Yumi flashed them a grin. “Thank you all very much,” the man said, smiling back at them. “We enjoyed your performance, and we hope you make it through the ranks.” They all nodded at him and made their way out of the auditorium.

While everyone else was satisfied with the feedback, Ulrich was frowning. “Doesn’t it usually mean when a judge says that, that they didn’t really like it? Kind of like a ‘try again next year’ sort of thing?”

“Come on, quit being such a pessimist,” Odd scolded. “If you say stuff like that, then it’ll come true.”

“Well yeah, and if you’re too positive, you’ll end up jinxing us,” Ulrich retorted.

“Guys, stop,” Aelita interrupted calmly. “When I didn’t have anything to play, I took a peek at them. They were smiling, so I don’t think that means we’re stopping at this round.”

“Well that’s good; I don’t want all this hard work to go to waste!” Yumi exclaimed as she pushed open the door to the waiting room. Jeremie was still there, and as they entered he glanced up and shut his laptop. Stuffing it back into his bag he smiled at them.

“So, guys, how’d it go?” he asked as they approached. Aelita was the first to reach him and she gave him a huge smile.

“It was great!” she said in her soft voice. “I think the judges liked it, and we might be going to the next round!”

“Yeah, considering I messed up so many times,” Ulrich muttered. “We’re definitely getting somewhere.”

“Come on, I couldn’t tell you made even one mistake,” Yumi reassured, glancing back at him. “What’s with you today? You seem pissed.” No response. She shrugged. “Okay, then…”

“Shall we go, then?” Odd suggested, heading for the door. “I’m not sure I want to miss dinner…”

~~~

It was about a week later, a lazy Sunday afternoon. Ulrich lay on his bed, reading a book, and Odd sat on his own, playing with Kiwi. Their peaceful silence was interrupted when there was a sudden knock on the door. Odd grabbed Kiwi and jumped up, then placed him in the dresser drawer. As he was doing so, Ulrich got up and answered the door. Outside stood Jim, once again, with hands at his hips, foot tapping impatiently, and something in his hands. “Uh, hi Jim,” Ulrich greeted slowly.

“Hello, Ulrich,” he replied. He stuck out the envelope that was in his hands. “Give this to Odd, and also tell him that I hope that it’s his parents.” With that, he nodded and marched off. Shrugging, Ulrich closed the door lightly and held out the long, white envelope to his roommate. “Here.”

Odd took it and collapsed on his bed. Eagerly, he tore it open. There were four sheets of paper, each of which he scanned quickly. “Hey, it’s a letter from the organization and the judges!” Ulrich’s ears perked and he jumped to the other side of the room. He leaned over Odd’s shoulder and glanced at each of the judges’ sheets, and they finally got to the letter. They both read it over, and Odd gasped. Ulrich’s jaw hung open. The looked at each other and simultaneously said, “No way…”

The two headed down for dinner earlier than usual that night. When they arrived in the cafeteria, they found Jeremie and Aelita already there, talking in quiet voices to each other. Odd and Ulrich retrieved their own food and sat at their table.

“Hey Einstein,” Ulrich said calmly. “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” he replied quite hotly, taking a stab at his chicken and stuffing it in his mouth.

“Well, you seem kinda upset,” Odd pointed out. “’Nothing’ can’t be up.”

“No, exactly. That’s what is up, nothing,” Jeremie exhaled deeply. “Have you guys even noticed?”

“Uh, noticed what?” Ulrich raised an eyebrow.

Jeremie let out a frustrated sigh. “See? It’s been practically a month since XANA escaped from the supercomputer, and we haven’t heard or seen a thing from him yet! Don’t you think this is a bit strange?”

The other two frowned simultaneously. “That really is weird,” Ulrich said quietly. “You’d think within the first week he was pummeling us with his new ways of attacking.”

“Or maybe he’s decided to get rid of the rest of the world while we relax over break,” Odd suggested. “Because by now he should know that we can’t be everywhere at once.”

“That’s exactly what we’re afraid of,” Aelita nodded, worry was evident in her voce. “If that’s true, and we end up going to Japan, and it’s not there anymore, how do we explain to the pilot that XANA’s gotten rid of it?”

“Oh, we just tell him that a super psychopathic artificial intelligence that’s bent on world domination escaped from the most powerful computer in the world and decided to get rid of some countries,” Odd waved his hand. “It’s not that hard.” Jeremie just rolled his eyes.

“Speaking of Japan,” Ulrich said. “We got a letter from the organization and our judges’ sheets from last week.”

The worry in Aelita’s eyes immediately disappeared and she smiled. “Well, what did they say?”

“Sorry to keep you hanging,” Odd began. “But I’m calling a meeting tomorrow to let everyone know.”

~~~

The small band met the next day in the late morning. Odd had them all sitting on chairs in front of him while he sat at the edge of the stage, papers in hand. Jeremie and Sissi (who arrived back from her vacation) sat behind the other members of the band.

“Well, how did you guys do last time?” Sissi asked, leaning forward.

“I thought we did okay,” Nicholas responded, nodding his head.

“The judges seemed to like it,” Aelita added. “But Odd’s going to tell us now if we’re moving on or not.”

As if that was his cue, Odd cleared his throat and clapped to get their attention. “All right, children, listen up! I have here,” he waved the papers. “The scores from the judges and our final say! Who shall we hear from first: the old lady, the man, or the woman?”

“Why don’t we just start from the lowest score to the highest?” Ulrich suggested.

Odd nodded in agreement. “Good idea.” He put down all but one paper and glanced it over. “This is from… the man,” he began. “Here’s what it says: Technique was very good and, um… I can’t read that… Oh! Technique was very good and higher level than normal people your age. Your guitarist and drummer especially.” The blonde paused to let himself bask in his own glory. “Okay, next… Musicality was nice, although I could use a little more distinguishing between piano and forte, if you even had that. Try using a little more phrasing to make it more interesting.

Your lyrics sounded beautiful, although I don’t know what you were saying. It was very nice to hear someone sing in a language other than our own. It was very refreshing.

Although your lyrics were nice, your style was a little mainstream. Try adding something different, like a piano glis. somewhere in there, those aren’t heard very often.” Furrowing his brow, Odd faced Ulrich. “Ulrich, what’s a glis?”

“Glisando,” Ulrich said. “I thought you would know that.”

“Oh, I do. I’ve just never seen it abbreviated before.” He shrugged and found his place again. “Your communication in the beginning was very good, and you all started at the same tempo and at the same time. However, as your piece went on, you lost some of your communication, and your pianist fell behind a bit. Practice this some more.

“Uh oh, here we go,” Odd took a deep breath. “Suggestions for improvement: I would like to see more musical lines and phrasing, which in turn would make this song more interesting. Also, try to add or take away some things to make it less mainstream. Have your pianist practice his runs a little more, they were a bit messy.

Other: Overall, I think you did well compared to others your age. Good luck!” Odd looked up and scanned his small audience.

“Well,” Yumi began. “Don’t we have a score, or something?”

“Oh!” Odd looked back down at the paper. “Ninety two.”

“Ninety two? Out of…” Ulrich asked.

Odd glanced back at his paper. “A thousand.”

“A thousand?!” Ulrich exclaimed, almost jumping out of his seat.

“Woah, woah, I meant one hundred,” Odd gave a nervous giggle.

“Ninety two isn’t bad!” Sissi nodded. “How much did you guys practice?”

“…A lot,” The catboy put down the paper and picked up another one. “Okay, the next highest score is from… the old lady. She says: Your technique was wonderful! Your age group is usually the less technically advanced.

The musicality could use a little more work. Phrasing, articulations, and dynamics are key to any good musical piece.

I am very surprised to hear lyrics in Japanese! I can tell that this means you are shooting for the finals. They were pleasing to the ear and I enjoyed them.

Your style, while seemingly mainstream, had some elements that were not entirely rock. This was a plus, and I liked your singer, who has a very nice voice (something we don’t hear often!).

Communication throughout the piece was lacking. The pianist fell behind about a half a beat. It may either have been communication or lack of practice, but your beginning was beautiful.

Suggestions for improvement: Try communicating more, especially if you move onto the next round, you will need those skills.

Other: Wonderful job and hope you make it to the next round!” Odd took a deep breath and set aside the paper. “Ninety five,” he finished.

“They all hate me,” Ulrich muttered, slouching.

“No they don’t,” Jeremie reassured, patting him on the shoulder. “They’re just giving you guys ways to improve, that’s all.”

Ulrich snorted as Odd picked up the next paper. “Here we go!” he began. “Your technique was awesome! When I was your age, I couldn’t play runs like that on my guitar. I still can’t!

I liked your musicality, but you could probably make it a little softer when the piano and the vocals have their duet (which was very lovely by the way!).

I didn’t know what you were singing because it was in a foreign language, and that might be a setback in the future. But it was nice to hear something different!

I like your style, refreshing and happy. Everything nowadays is very mad sounding.

Communication is important! Work on this a bit. You were together until the last chorus repeat, I think you guys started to rush!

Suggestions for improvement: Communication : ) Also, try kicking the tempo up a bit, or adding something to it. It sounded kind of empty.

Other: Your keyboardist is really hot! ♥ I hope you guys make it far! Good luck the rest of the way.” Odd looked up. “Ninety seven.”

“All in the nineties?!” Yumi exclaimed. “We couldn’t have possibly been that good, I mean…”

“Well, are we moving on, or not?” Nicholas interrupted. Odd stared at him for a few seconds before realizing.

“Oh.” He reached over and picked up the final paper. “Okay guys, here’s what the letter says! It says, ‘Dear Odd Della Robbia et al.: Congratulations on making it through the first round! The judges have enjoyed your performance.

'You have finished this round with the scores 92, 95, and 97. This puts you in second place for this round with a total score of 284. This means you are above the cutoff point for 275, and you are moving on to the next round!

'This will take place at 2 PM, at the x Community Center in Paris on Friday, August 4th, 2006. Please come, this round will determine if you are going to the finals in Tokyo, Japan or not.

'The judges in this round will not only judge you on what was looked at before, but also how well you can improvise. This will be crucial as to whether or not you are moving on.

'The results of the next round will be reported at the site. Please do not leave until you have found out who the winners are.

'We can’t wait to see you next round! Good luck.'
” Odd nodded. “Improv, huh?” he stacked the papers back together and lay them down. He jumped off the stage and landed swiftly on his feet.

“Crap! I can’t improv,” Ulrich whined, placing his forehead in his hands. “We’re not getting past this round!”

“Come on, Ulrich,” Yumi said softly. “I can’t improv, either. If you want, for the next week we can practice together until you can make up stuff on the spot, okay?” He nodded slowly in response.

“And let’s just hope our work doesn’t go to waste…”
The Result by Lani
Author's Notes:
Chapter five. And I wanna say sorry for not putting the scene of them learning how to improv, that's kinda difficult to show... Rwar. Anyway... yeah. x__X;

Odd struck the last note on his guitar, and it rang throughout the auditorium. It wasn’t until the echo died out when the audience burst into cheer and applause. Yumi smiled and bowed. “Thank you,” she said softly into the microphone.

The applause died out and they stood, waiting for the judges’ signal. Finally, the one in the middle spoke into his microphone on the table. “Thank you very much, Yumi. Now, would you please play one other piece improvised?” She nodded and they nodded back

The Japanese girl glanced back at her friends. They all in turn glanced at Ulrich, who rolled his eyes and gave a shrug. Without a sign, he began to play a slow, melancholy melody. Aelita added some pads in the background and Nicholas added a beat. Odd switched his guitar to bass and played a bass line.

Yumi started to sing. She had absolutely nothing in mind, just let everything flow. It ended up being an apology letter to her parents for lying to them all the time. Good thing they weren’t here, otherwise they’d scold her and want to know what the truth was. They couldn’t let that happen.

She sung her last note and let her voice fade out. The others, one by one, dropped out. First Aelita, then Odd, then Nicholas, and Ulrich ended with a quiet chord. The audience burst out into immediate applause. Yumi grinned, proud with herself and the others. She gave them another bow, but this time longer and deeper. The judges smiled to them and excused them, and they filed off the stage.

“Hey, Ulrich, you weren’t too bad back there!” Odd grinned and smacked his friend in the back. “I didn’t catch you slipping up once!”

The brunette gave a slight grin. “Thanks, Odd.”

They made their way back into the waiting room and lounged around in their corner. “Too bad Jeremie couldn’t make it,” Aelita sighed. “He’ll probably never hear us perform now…”

“Come on, don’t think that,” Yumi reassured her. “I think we did really well. We might be going to Japan.”

“Well yeah, but we don’t know how well the other guys did, huh?” Nicolas pointed out. “For all we know, we were the worst ones out there.”

“I doubt it,” Odd countered. “Judging by the applause, I think we’re going on the next airplane to a foreign country.”

It wasn’t until about an hour later when all the groups were done and crowded into the small waiting room. The judges entered and squeezed their way into the room and everyone was immediately. An air of tension hung over the crowd as the judges’ spokesperson overlooked his clipboard.

“Thank you all for a wonderful performance,” he began. “You all did wonderfully, as expected from the preliminary round winners.” He nodded in approval. “Here on my clipboard I have the final results, and who the three lucky winners will be. The winners will be going to Japan for the final round!” There came a cheer from the contestants, but it died out quickly.

“In first place…” The entire crowd became tenser, and Odd crossed his fingers. He couldn’t lose, and he wouldn’t lose. When the judge named a band name that wasn’t them, the five let out a heavy sigh. Three girls on the other side of the room were screaming and hugging each other.

“Congratulations to them!” The judge smiled and looked back down at his clipboard. “In second place, we have…” Once again, it wasn’t a band any of them were familiar with. A young girl and an older boy were hugging each other.

“And last, but certainly not least,” the judge looked over his paper and cleared his throat. “In third place we have…” Odd threw his head in his hands. It wasn’t them. The crowd seemed to grow even tenser, each hoping that it was their own band that made the cut.

“Pop-Rock Progressives.”

Yumi let out the loudest scream she had ever screamed in her life. She turned around and pulled Ulrich into a tight hug, who in turn just stood shocked. Aelita was laughing along with Nicolas.

“And with that, I would like to thank all who participated,” the judge nodded and smiled to the rest of the crowd. “If you are moving on to the next round, please go to the reception desk in the lobby for ticket application forms. You may go home.” The judges all left and anyone who didn’t win was murmuring angrily among their group.

The five, on the other hand, were giddier than a young girl who just got her first kiss. They chatted excitedly among themselves as they headed towards the lobby.

“Oh my god, you guys will love Japan!” Yumi exclaimed. “We can do so much stuff! We’ll go shopping, and do karaoke, eat great food, and maybe if we can, we’ll visit some shrines or something! This will be great.” She grinned again. They approached the counter and stood behind the other two who were making the finals.

“Hey, Yumi. You’re going to have to teach me some Japanese so we can survive,” Odd said, pointing at her. “For example: We’re stuck in the middle of the city and poor Odd’s lost! Not only that, he has to use the bathroom! How do you say, ‘Where’s the bathroom?’”

Yumi laughed. “Toire wa doko,” she said.

“Toilet wa doke?” Odd raised his eyebrow. Yumi shook her head.

Ulrich laughed. “And you’d think that with your family you’d know every language in the world,”

“Oh, shut up you!” Odd crossed his arms and frowned. The two people in front of them left and it was their turn.

“Names?” the lady asked. They each said their own and she pulled out a paper. “All right, let’s see… You are all under eighteen. You need a chaperone.” She pulled out another paper and slid it across the counter. “The chaperone must be an adult you know well and trust.” They nodded in understanding. “Also, aside from you five and your chaperone, do you expect anyone else to be coming?”

They glanced at each other. “Uhh, hold on,” Odd said. He turned to the rest of them. “There’s us five,” he held up one outstretched hand. “And our chaperone,” he held up his other hand and another finger. “Then we have Jeremie coming,” he held up another finger. “Anyone else?”

“If you’re bringing along Jeremie, then Sissi should come along too,” Nicolas insisted. Ulrich gave a heavy sigh and Odd rolled his eyes, but held up another finger anyway.

“So that totals to eight people,” he concluded. “Yumi, how safe is Japan? We might need another chaperone.”

Yumi shook her head. “Just one is enough. It’s probably the safest country in the world.”

“Alrighty then,” Odd nodded and turned back to the lady. “Eight people are coming on this trip, ma’am.”

The lady nodded. She wrote something down. “Please, have your chaperone sign this form,” she pointed at the one from earlier. “We will send your tickets in and hopefully, they will be in by Monday. Your flight is at 7AM on Wednesday morning. Please don’t be late for your flight! We can’t replace your tickets.” She smiled at them. “Good luck on the finals!” The five thanked her and headed outside the building to wait for their bus.

Jeremie sat at his computer, staring at the screen and tapping his chin. He put his hands forward, ready to type when he heard a loud slamming noise behind him. He let out a yelp and tried to keep himself from falling on his keyboard. He clutched his heart and swiveled around to find his friends standing there with large, idiotic grins on their faces. Yes, even Ulrich. “You guys almost gave me a heart attack,” Jeremie scolded, eyes wide open.

“Hey Einstein! Guess what!” Odd exclaimed, grinned.

“Uhh, they have a discount at the burger store?” Odd just rolled his eyes.

“No, silly!” Aelita walked up to him smiling. “We made the second round! We’re going to Japan!”

Jeremie’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?” He stood up and hugged her. “That’s so wonderful!” He broke away and they both grinned. “So wait, if you we’re traveling, I’ve been thinking…” He glanced at his computer then back at his friends. A sly smile appeared on his face. “Anyone want to come into town with me?”

~~~

It was late afternoon when they reached the store Jeremie had in mind: a high-tech computer store with all the latest technology and accessories. “Uh,” Ulrich tapped Jeremie on the shoulder. “You wanna tell us what you have in mind?”

The young blonde patted his bag. “I’ve had this little laptop for the longest time,” he explained. “And now that XANA’s free and we’ll be away without the supercomputer, I figured it was time for an upgrade.” The group made their way over to the computer section on the other side of the store, where sleek, silver, high-tech laptops stood on display. Jeremie’s eyes widened and ran over to the displays.

“Wow, Jeremie’s just like Odd when he sees a pretty girl,” Ulrich teased. Odd scoffed.

Jeremie came back several minutes later, carefully balancing a rather flat box with a picture of a sleek-looking laptop on it. Odd squinted at the box. “You sure you have enough money for that, Jeremie?” he asked, sincerely concerned.

He nodded. “Yeah,” he jerked his head in the direction of his backpack. “At the end of school I called my parents and notified them that I was going to get a new laptop, so they gave me some money. Luckily enough, I have enough for this one.” He grinned. “Come with me to the front.”

A loud ripping sound filled Jeremie’s dorm room as he opened his new toy excitedly. He slowly lifted it up, letting it catch the last rays of the sun that were filtering through his windows. He beamed at it, and stroked his hand over the top. “Oh wow, you guys have no idea how excited I am right now,” he stated the obvious, his voice trembling a little.

Aelita knelt down beside him, also grinning ear to ear. “Jeremie, it’s wonderful!” she agreed. She watched as he ceremonially made his way over to his desktop, and slowly hooked it up.

“I just gotta transfer all my old data onto here, and hopefully I’ll have more than enough room to make even better programs.”

“Yeah, like a XANA-detector or something,” Odd reminded him. “Remember? I refuse to leave the country until that’s done, and we’re leaving on Wednesday! So chop-chop, Einstein!”

Jeremie rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes, I know. I’ve got something in mind, so don’t worry. I’ll probably stay up all night working on it, so I can get it done and we can test it out tomorrow.”

Ulrich stood. “Well, that’s good,” he stretched as he gave a slight yawn. “Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m exhausted.” He headed for the door, but paused when he was halfway out. “Oh, yeah, tomorrow, we have to ask if Jim can go with us.”

“Imagine,” Odd said to himself as he also headed to the door. “He’s been wanting us out of this place for days and now he has to go on a trip with us. Really, I pity him.” The door shut behind the two.

“Well, I’d better get to bed too,” Aelita said, standing. “I’ll see you tomorrow, and I can’t wait to see what you’ve got to show tomorrow.” She gave her room-lighting grin, and blushing, Jeremie grinned back. “Night.”

“Night,” Jeremie called after her as the door shut softly. He gave a sigh and turned back to his laptop. He stretched out his hands and wiggled his fingers. “Let’s get this party started…”

This story archived at http://codexana.net/lyokofreak/lff/viewstory.php?sid=17