Cilena Weoce looked around her for a place to sit. Boy, did she hate sitting alone-but she was, after all, the new girl. She may not have a choice.

            Then she saw a wave directed at her-a blond boy with a… was that a purple dot in his hair!? In any case, he was waving, and he looked friendly enough. Not that that was a guarantee of kindness, but it was better than nothing. She decided to go over.

            Upon arriving at the table, Cilena saw that there was more than one person there-five total, in fact.

            “Um… Hi!” she said, unsure of herself now. “Thanks for letting me sit here. I’m Cilena-the i and the e are switched, by the way. My parents have an odd sense of humor.” She shrugged. “So who are you guys?”

            The blond boy who’d waved to her took a deep breath-Like he’s preparing himself-what, does he think I'm going to laugh? thought Cilena-then he said, “I’m Odd. Nice to meet you!”

            Cilena tried to stifle a giggle, and failed miserably. “Odd? Is that your real name or your nickname?”

            “No,” answered Odd, “it’s my real name. Really. Don’t worry, you can laugh-I’m used to it. Hey-” he shrugged, and a joking manner entered his voice. “They say ‘If the shoe fits,’ right?”

            “And I thought my parents were bad.” Cilena managed not to giggle this time, but her eyes were sparkling as she turned to Odd’s friends. The next to introduce herself was a girl who looked to be about Cilena’s age and height, with red hair and brown eyes. “Hi!” she said brightly. “I’m Aelita, welcome to Kadic! And don’t mind Odd, by the way-he’s always joking around.” Now it was Odd’s turn not to laugh, as the boy sitting by him poked him.

                “Hia!” Cilena couldn’t help but smile at Aelita. She was just so… likeable. No time to linger on thoughts, though, or she’d mix the next intro. This time it was the boy who had poked Odd. He was tall and had brown hair and eyes. He was cute, but not in an I-like-him-cute sort of way. With a start, Cilena realized he was talking.

                “Hey! I’m Ulrich. Welcome to Kadic!”

                “Hi! Nice to meet you.” Would she ever stop grinning?

                The next was the black-haired, tallish, somewhat-older-looking girl sitting across the table from Ulrich. “Hi!” Se said (standard by now, albeit). “I’m Yumi. It’s great to meet you!” She waved merrily, and Cilena waved back just as much so.

                Last, but probably not least, the blond boy-correction, the other blond boy-adjusted his glasses slightly and stood up to shake Cilena’s hand. “Hey, I’m Jeremie. Welcome to Kadic!” Though he wasn’t as enthusiastic as the others, Cilena could tell that Jeremie really meant it-he just wasn’t the sort to go all out on introductions.

                “So what grade are you in?” It was Aelita who asked the question.

                “8th grade,” Cilena responded. “Come to think of it, I have…” she consulted her schedule. “Science next, Mrs. Proser, room E108. Not that I have any idea where that is.” She looked up. "Could one of you guys show me before you get to your class?”

                Everyone proceeded to rattle off a list of their classes and periods, and it was determined in the end that all six schedules were identical to one another for about 4 classes. And, in answer to her earlier question, Aelita offered to show her the science room right then (it was apparently not that far from the cafeteria).

                Life at Kadic was starting to look up.

***

                "Okay, come out with it, Odd.” Ulrich stared at Odd, trying to make him talk-a mirror image of what usually happened the other way around.

                Yeesh, thought Odd. Now I can see where I get on his nerves.

                But still. “What do you mean?” he asked innocently.

                “Come on, Odd.” It was Yumi this time, her tone the extremely rare joke-and-tease (though she did use it more often than Ulrich-not that that was saying much). “It doesn’t take an idiot to see that you like her.”

                “Says you!” Odd retorted. In a way, Yumi was right-this Cilena seemed funny, nice, and smart. But he didn’t like like her. He thought. Did he? Nah.

                Ulrich shook his head and smiled as he went back to lunch. He’d get the truth out of Odd-it was only a matter of time. Odd probably knew it, too.

                Jeremie contented himself with rolling his eyes and laughing.

                “Anyway…” Yumi looked thoughtful. “We’d have to watch her a bit longer, of course, but she seems a Lyoko type. The question is, of course, ‘Can we trust her?’ ”

                Jeremie watched as Aelita stopped Cilena for a moment-it looked like she was warning her against the cafeteria food. In response Cilena laughed, and said something back to Aelita. They both laughed, then continued back towards the table.

                “Not yet… But maybe”

                As the two girls resumed eating, Yumi gave Aelita a slight shake of her head. Aelita nodded slightly in response, letting the others know that she agreed.

                Sissi Delmas sighed as she looked around. Kids were hanging out in pairs and groups, laughing and talking, and she… she was alone.

                Summer, a girl who Sissi sort-of-but-not-really knew, came up to her. “Are you okay? You see kind of-“

                “Oh, bug off!” Sissi cut in.

                She sighed mentally as Summer shrugged and walked off, looking slightly upset. She really hadn’t meant to snap like that-she was just down, and had taken it out on Summer. Not that that was an excuse.

                “Summer-wait up!” Summer turned around in time to see Sissi running after her.

                “I’m sorry,” Sissi panted as she finally caught up. After pausing to catch her breath, she said, “I really didn’t mean to snap at you like that-I’ve just been having a bad day, and I took it out on you. I’m sorry.”

                Summer smiled sympathetically. “It’s all right-everyone has days like that. Good luck with it-judjing from past expeirience, it should clear up about ten-thirty!” they bouth laughed at that-10:30 PM was the 8th grade curfew, and of course when the teachers went away things were bound to get better!

                Summer glanced down at her watch. “Listen-my next class is in the wing, and I need to talk to my teacher before class, so I better get going. See you later?”

                “See you later!” Sissi waved as Summer jogged off towards the C wing. Sissi had been trying to make a new start at school-be less annoying, make friends, get better grades-and maybe Summer could be her starting point, her first friend. But they weren’t even in any of the same classes, and they hardly ever saw each other. What Sissi really wanted was a best friend-someone to laugh with on the way to class, and to confide in when you can’t with anyone else, and… well, just be friends.

                A girl Sissi didn’t recognize started coming towards her. She perked up a bit, thinking that if the girl was new, she might be a potential friend. Unfortunately, Sissi suddenly remembered seeing-Cilena, was it-at lunch with Ulrich and his friends, who had probably installed Sissi into Cilena’s mind as a horrible, stuck-up, snooty sort of character. Which she had been. Also unfortunately, Cilena was still heading straight toward her. Quickly, Sissi readied herself for the sarcastic comments, ridiculing, and name-calling.

                “Are you okay? You look kind of… down.”

                Sissi looked up, wary of some sort of trick. But in Cilena’s eyes-Wow, those beautiful green eyes-she saw no trickery, or hate, or any of the emotions she’d expected to see-in their place were pity and worry. Sighing, Sissi dropped her head.

                “It’s just… Well, I suppose I’m lonely.”

                “You don’t have any friends here?”

                “No, not really. A few, but they’re more like…acquaintances, if you know what I mean. No real friends, and I’ve gone to Kadic for two years and change now.”

                Cilena bit her lip. “I do, actually. Sort of. I had a time in 5th grade when I had about 2 friends.”

                Sissi looked at the girl sitting next to her in disbelief. How could anyone with that personality be anything but popular?

                Seeing Sissi’s confused look, Cilena added, “I wouldn’t curse and I made all 100s without being ashamed-what I really was was bored-though that was only part of it. I’d… rather not get into the other part, though.”

                Sissi nodded; she knew the feeling well. She couldn’t help wondering, though, about this girl with the amazing eyes and mysterious past. Who was she, really? Where was she from, and who were her parents? Why was she talking to Sissi if she was already friends with UAJOY (her name for Ulrich and friends, the initials of each)?

                And then the bell for the end of free period rang. Cilena brushed her hair out of her face and gathered her books, than got up and looked around at her new friend. “I’m Cilena, by the way.”

                Sissi nodded her acknowledgement. “I’m Sissi. Well-actually I’m Elizabeth, but I hate it, so everyone calls me Sissi. I don’t give them much option, really.”

                Cilena laughed at that. “M’kay. I’ll see you later, Sissi!”

                “Bye, see you later!” Sissi smiled as she headed to science.

                I wonder if she’s in any of my classes…

                “Hey guys!” Cilena ran to catch up with the rest of her new friends. On her way, she saw a phone in the middle of the floor-someone had probably dropped it.

                Right where it can get trampled, too, she thought, as she rescued the phone before the stampede of students. Flipping it open, she saw that it was Aelita’s.

                Finally catching up to the others, Cilena handed Aelita’s phone back to her. “You may want to be more careful-it almost got trampled.”

                Aelita looked a bit horrified at what could have happened to her phone as she took it from Cilena. “Thanks! I tend to have it it my pocket… I suppose it just fell out and I didn't notice.” She looked back up. "Thanks again!”

                “No problem. By the way-sorry if I’m being a bit too curious, but would XANA have anything to do with Xanadou? I love that movie!” Cilena was, luckily, too excited to notice the look of horror on the other’s faces.

                “Well than,” said Jeremie quickly, ”You must be two of a kind. I’m not much of a Xanadou person myself, but Aelita on the other hand…”

                The others picked up the hint quickly-not that it was hard (Unfortunately, Aelita had seen Xanadou and wasn’t really all that fond of it). They were saved from having to continue their pretending, however, by Yumi looking at the clock and saying, “Um… we’ve only got 4 minutes to get to class.”

                “What was Sissi bothering you for, by the way?” Cilena looked around; it was Ulrich who had asked the question.

                Odd raised an eyebrow. “Really? She’s always annoying us until we die-especially Ulrich. She has this idea-correction, delusion-that she can get him to go out with her.”

                Cilena cocked her head. “Are you sure we’re not thinking of different people?”

                “Pretty sure,” answered Yumi.

                “Hm… weird. This is my first day at Kadic, of course. Maybe she just wanted a friend.”

                “Friend, my eye.” Ulrich shook his head.

                “Oh, your eye is a good friend?” Odd joked. In return, he received four glares and one laugh. Hey, he’d made someone laugh!

                “No. I mean that if Sissi is trying to be your friend, she probably wants something.”

                Cilena shrugged. She could tell it would be hard, but she’d do her best to work out a way to keep her friends-all of them.

***

                Class was pretty boring-mostly just more of the “Welcome to 8th grade!” nonsense from earlier classes. It didn’t help that Cilena kept wanting to nod off-her lack of substantial sleep last night was catching up to her. Hopefully she’d make it to the end of the day.

                She was a bit confused, though. Sissi had been in the class, and though there was no “real” confrontation it quickly became obvious that Sissi rather did hate the rest of Cilena’s friends-and the feeling was mutual. If Sissi knew that Cilena was friends with the rest, why did she bother talking to her at all?

                It could be Ulrich was right, and Sissi was using her. But Cilena could generally tell when that was going on, and it just… didn’t feel like it. Besides, who goes to all the trouble of looking upset for almost all of free period just to get someone to think you’re their friend? It would be pretty boring.

                This wasn’t making any sense. And on top of that, Cilena was getting sleepier by the minute. Thank goodness this was 7th period… only 1 more to go… or was it two? In any case, the bell rang, and Cilena waved to her friends-all six-checked her schedule, and headed off to her next class, all the while nearly dead on her feet.