After the luxury of a longer-than-usual shower, Ulrich went to wake Odd up. There was going to be blueberry muffins for breakfast, a treat Odd surely wouldn’t want to miss. “Time to get up, Odd.” Ulrich intoned as he entered the room. Seeing no result, Ulrich placed his hand on Odd’s shoulder, shaking him. Still nothing. Ulrich subconsciously tightened his grip and shook again. Before Ulrich realized he’d done anything, Odd was lying on the floor in a heap, having been forced out of bed.
“What’s going on?” came the hurt voice from under the pile of blankets. Kiwi came over and burrowed underneath the mass of linens, emerging with a disheveled Odd in tow. Seeing Ulrich, Odd scowled. “Next time, let the alarm clock do the work. It’s far gentler.” With that, Odd stalked out of the room. Ulrich shook his head as he got dressed. ‘Why’d I do that?’ he thought. And now Odd was mad at him, and with good reason. Ulrich decided to right things at breakfast.
But at breakfast, things weren’t really any better. Ulrich grimaced as he sat down with his food. Odd stuck up his nose haughtily in the air before eating, never sparing Ulrich a glance. Jeremie and Aelita ate quietly, obviously trying to stay out of harm’s way. Yumi sat down as Ulrich began cutting into a sausage. Noticing the tension, she simply began eating, not saying a word, though focusing primarily on Ulrich. He was murdering his food, slicing apart the links with unchecked gusto. Ulrich noisily chewed his food and slammed his juice glass down when finished with it.
Yumi broke her silence at that. “Something you want to talk about, Ulrich?” He just shook his head an ingested a muffin whole. Yumi decided it’d be better to turn away at that point, lest she lose her appetite. She felt Ulrich get up next to her and saw him stalk off out of the corner of her eye.
Ulrich made his way to the tray drop-off window and thrust his tray forcefully through. “Have it!” he said before exiting the cafeteria no more cheerfully than he had entered it. Rosa sent him a withering glare as she cleaned the remnants of Ulrich’s meal off her apron.
“Ok, what’s up with Ulrich?” Yumi questioned the remaining group members at the table. Jeremie and Aelita shrugged, but Odd spoke up.
“Oh, nothing much. I just got a rude awakening from Ulrich this morning.” Leaving it at that, the gang finished their meals and started on their way to class.
“I wonder where Ulrich went off to?” Aelita said as they walked down the hall.
“To sulk, you mean,” Odd tried to joke, but it fell flat.
“Isn’t that him up there?” Jeremie gestured further down the hall. As they all watched, Ulrich strode off to class briskly, not noticing (or perhaps caring about) the students in his way. Ulrich boldly moved elbowed them aside as he continued plowing his way to first period. The rest of the gang picked up their pace, hoping to do some damage control. Muttered grunts of pain and varied curses were heard as they picked their way through those left in Ulrich’ wake.
Yumi finally got a hand on Ulrich’s arm as he reached the classroom door. Turning, Ulrich practically snarled, “Let me go!” Yumi studied Ulrich closely for a moment. His eyes, it seemed to her, did not match Ulrich’s actions. Distracted, Yumi barely time to react as Ulrich pried her hand off his shoulder. Wincing, she looked at the others as they came up.
“You’ve got your own class to get to,” Aelita said. “We can handle Ulrich.” Yumi nodded imperceptibly and was off. The rest made their way into the classroom and sat down. Ulrich was already seated at his spot, brooding.
“You’re being irrational, Ulrich,” Jeremie said.
“And scary,” Odd chimed in. Ulrich pretended not to hear.
As class started, Ulrich tuned everything out. Today, it was like he was seeing himself (a hideously malformed version of himself) from outside his body at times. Ulrich knew he’d been a royal pain to be around all morning, and yet was powerless to stop himself. He didn’t like what he’d seen, and was sure the others felt the same.
Seeing Ulrich spaced out, Odd, Aelita and Jeremie started whispering about his strange behavior.
“Where did all this anger come from?” Odd asked the other two. “He was all worn out last night. We had to carry him back, for pity’s sake!”
“It doesn’t add up,” Jeremie mumbled. “Why would he be any different today than yesterday?”
“Could he be sore and cranky?” Aelita asked.
“Sore and cranky Ulrich is usually a quiet Ulrich,” Odd said. “He’s not one to just vent his problems and issues like this.”
“But that’s just it – what is his problem?” Aelita asked. “It’s clear he won’t tell us.”
Conversation stopped for a moment as Mrs. Hertz called on Jeremie to provide an answer. He stood and did so, sitting back down with a half-smug look on his face. “Anyway,” he started. “At lunch, we should try to get some information out of him, any at all. And as civilly as possible, too. We don’t want him even more riled up.”
“Yeah. I don’t want to find myself suddenly sprawled out on the floor again,” Odd bemoaned.
“What?” Jeremie and Aelita almost forgot to keep their voices down.
“This morning, Ulrich decided he’d wake me up by shoving me out of bed.” Odd pouted. “I could’ve hit Kiwi when I fell!”
“Well, you are a deep sleeper,” Jeremie informed him. “He could’ve done it as a last resort.”
“But, again, it’s just not like him,” Aelita trailed off, and they all turned to study Ulrich covertly some more. They weren’t the only ones. Mrs. Hertz had picked up on Ulrich’s lack of attention to her lesson and was calling his name repeatedly to the class’s snickers. Odd poked Ulrich in the side, flinching back as he did so, not wanting to be in punching range. Ulrich snapped to attention.
“Ulrich Stern! Would you please pay attention in my class? I don’t take kindly to having to repeat myself. Now, why don’t you answer this problem?” Mrs. Hertz finished sternly.
“Sure.” Ulrich replied agreeably. “And why don’t you go to hell?”
The room fell silent. Aelita clapped her hand over her mouth, and Odd was stifling his laughter in a similar manner. Mrs. Hertz was furious, clutching the edge of her desk so hard her knuckles turned white.
“Insubordination! Principal’s office! NOW!” Mrs. Hertz screamed. With a banshee-like scraping, Ulrich got up from his desk and left the room, slamming the door behind him. Conversation picked up again, and Mrs. Hertz tried to restore some order.
“Something tells me that by lunch, it may be too late,” Jeremie said.