Summary: Welcome to Kadic Academy, a classical French boarding school where everyone knows your name - and where romance blooms, gossip spreads like the Black Death, and you should never forget your Blue 32.
Categories: Seasons > Season 3, Ships > Odd and Sissi, Ships > Other Characters: Aelita Hopper, Jeremie Belpois, Odd Della Robbia, Ulrich Stern, Yumi Ishiyama
Genres: Comedy, General, Romance
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 2 Completed: No
Word count: 2954 Read: 3913
Published: Feb 20, 2007 Updated: Feb 22, 2007
1. Preparation by Gravity Control
2. Outbreak by Gravity Control
Preparation by Gravity Control
Author's Notes:
The picture below was taken by yours truly specifically for this fic. I thought it might be a neat idea. ^_^
(Odd’s POV)
Suntan? No - it’s the middle of December. Sunglasses? Of course; gotta look good. Money? No, I have parents.
I shuffled through my bag frenatically. What to bring? What not to bring? My side of the room was trashed. Do I really have this much stuff? Is that a cookie? Is it stale? So many questions. But I decided to bring the cookie anyway.
Ulrich, whose side of the room was in good shape, eyed me murkily. He was sitting on his bed and calmly reading a book. “Do you mind?” he asked, his voice wary. I was kind of making a racket throwing my stuff around.
I looked up from my pandemonium. I got off the floor and jumped on my bed. “I’m exhausted! I’ve been at this all day, Ulrich,” I whined, not getting an answer. Bummer - my roommate’s two small suitcases were placed neatly by his bed, and I was cramming all my belongings into a measly plastic bag.
Old man Delmas had decided to let all the Kadic students visit their families for the holiday. I was excited about seeing Mom and Dad, and my friends and my cat, Linabella. And, as has been implied, I was in the process of packing that night, while all the other students were totally prepared for the trip.
Outside of the day students like Yumi, the rest of us only get to see our families on two occasions each year: Thanksgiving and Christmas. Or if a relative dies or gets seriously injured. (Last month, Anouche Bedoyan was granted leave to see her family when her three uncles were involved in a construction accident. Even though we felt sorry for the girl, a lot of us envied Anouche’s leave. Thomas Jovilet, who always sits as close as he can to Aelita in chemistry class, thinks it was only a one-time thing and might not happen again.)
That Christmas, I was going back to my hometown of Ortona, Italy, a city near the sea. My friends and I always used to hang out near the beach and eat strawberry ice cream. Strawberry ice cream was like our trademark. Larina Corvetto and Mario Ruccini were the best friends a guy could ask for. I couldn’t wait to go back to Italy, my motherland, and let the salty sea air and the familiar refrains of the Italian language fill my senses. I guess that’s over-poetic lingo for someone like me to use, but it’s appropriate. You can’t use common talk for a wonderful place like Ortona.
I didn’t remember snuggling up to my pillow and falling fast asleep, but I do remember dreaming of my friends, my family, my Italy. That night I was home again.
- - -
(Ulrich’s POV)
The next morning was Monday, but luckily enough, we had Christmas Eve off. I woke up at 10:00 a.m. and spent about an hour staring at the ceiling, thinking. I wasn’t looking forward to the trip back to Koblenz. I didn’t want to see my family, or spend all of Christmas being sick. As usual, Mom would remain distant and say she loved me, and Dad would basically ask me if I was living up to his standards. He would snap at me about my grades, which were weighing me down as well today. Life in Germany had been gloomy. I felt like Yumi, Jeremie, Odd, and Aelita were my only family.
Germany was bringing me down, but that’s not all that was. I was also thinking about Yumi. Last week she said our relationship was going nowhere and she told me in the park that we were “running in circles.” I understood, though I didn’t want to. Yumi had given me a lot to think about. I had thought I loved her, now I had to consider that too.
I decided I was giving myself a headache; it was time to get up. Odd was still asleep, but I hopped out of bed, got dressed, and walked out the door, willing to start the day, knowing that I probably wasn’t ready.
Outside the sky was an overcast blanket over our world, and although it wasn’t raining, the air was moist and there were puddles to be seen throughout Kadic. Some random students were hanging out in the courtyard; I spotted Aelita talking with Tania Grandjean. Sissi and her slaves were by the vending machine, not far away, ruining my chances of getting something to drink. She waved to me and smiled, but I scowled at her and turned away. I was in no mood for my one-person fan club today.
I was just walking away when Sissi ran up to me, screaming, “Hey!”
She put her hands on my shoulders, not letting me walk away. “Would you get off of me?” I snapped, rather irritated.
“Ulrich! Didn’t Odd tell you?! We have a date tonight!”
First, I felt numbness. Then, shock. The idea of Odd and Sissi dating each other was one of those things that is silently unthinkable. You leave it alone because you know that it can never happen. Sissi and Odd have been at odds with each other - no pun intended - ever since he arrived here at Kadic Academy. The last time I saw those two together was last Saturday, when they were in some kind of fight regarding the currency in America. Now they were suddenly hooking up?
“Isn’t that great?” she continued. “We’re going to that splendid little cafe on Second. What do you think?”
“I pity Odd,” I said. She backed up to let me go me own way. When I stole a brief glance behind me, she looked genuinely hurt. Usually, concise comments like mine didn’t trouble her. What was up with Sissi Delmas?
- - -
(Aelita’s POV)
On the day before Christmas, I was on my way to the cafeteria when I crossed paths with my classmate Tania Grandjean, who gave me a courteous “Good morning, Aelita.” I returned her greeting.
“Do you know what assignments we have for chemistry on Thursday?” she asked. “I lost the paper.”
As I reminded Tania of everything we had in chemistry for both Thursday and Friday and discussed it with her, I happened to catch Ulrich come out of the dorm building. He seemed to be making his way towards the library/study hall when Sissi grabbed his attention. He whirled around and marched the opposite direction. Never taking “No!” for an answer, Sissi caught up with him and started screaming joyously. Ulrich said something, and she stepped out of the way. There was a look of pain on her face, but Ulrich didn’t seem to care very much.
“...when mixed with nitrogen, but that doesn’t make sense,” Tania was saying.
I tried to break away politely. “Excuse me, Tania, but my best friend is over there, and I think something’s up with him. You don’t mind, do you?” I slinked away and joined Ulrich, who did not look eager to chat.
“What’s up with Sissi?” I wondered aloud to him.
“She’s being a headache again.”
“What was she screaming about?”
“A date with Odd.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Sissi and Odd weren’t supposed to date each other. It wass ridiculous, impossible, unmentionable. But right now I was worried about Ulrich. “Are you okay? You don’t look like yourself today.”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t want to go back to Germany. Too many bad memories there,” he explained. I was empathetic, having learned more than what was necessary about memories.
“Well, why don’t I go with you?” I offered. Ulrich stopped walking and faced me.
“I thought you had to stay here, Aelita.”
“No...I could spend Christmas with Franz Hopper on Lyoko, wherever he is.” I rolled my eyes. I wanted to make the suggestion sound comical, but actually it wasn’t very amusing to me. My friends were going to see their families tomorrow. I could only remember spending one Christmas with my parents: many years ago in the mountainous region of Mayenne, when I was a little girl. That was the year I got Mister Puck. Now I only had a father, and he was lost in a virtual universe.
Ulrich seemed to be mulling over my proposal. He looked at the mud-splashed ground, a serious expression etched on his face. I noticed that it had started to drizzle. Finally he pronounced with a somber voice, “I think it would be much better if you stayed here.”
With that, Ulrich started off back to the dorm building, leaving me under the cold rain, which was turning into a downpour.
It could have just been the rain, but I imagined there was something forbidding in Ulrich’s tone and expression when he spoke of Germany that he never took when speaking of anything else.
Outbreak by Gravity Control
(Yumi’s POV)
Mom said it rained all of Christmas Eve morning. But around noon, it quit raining, and some of the one-cloud sky split to let broad rays of sunshine through everywhere. It was slightly hazy, and the sunshine mixed with the mist was absolutely lovely. It lasted all day. I lounged in my room for at least two hours just gazing out the window.
Around the end of said two hours, my cell phone rang, nearly causing me to soar through the ceiling. It was Aelita. Instead of a friendly “Hello?” or “So, what’s up?”, I answered with “You scared me!”
She snickered and apologized. “Sorry to break up your thought clouds. Oh, bad pun. Anyway, I didn’t want you to come back Thursday and wonder what the heck is wrong wth Kadic, so I decided to tell you that Sissi and Odd have a date tonight!”
It wasn’t like Aelita to lie, but how could she be telling the truth? I replied stanchly, “You’re lying. Sissi and Odd are not dating.”
“Oh, it’s true. They are going out tonight. Café de Margerie, 8:00 p.m. - Odd wants to keep it a secret while Sissi wants to shout it out, but it doesn’t matter because everyone already knows.”
I gave up. They were dating and there was nothing anyone could do about it. “Wow. Aelita, I guess you’re right. This is pretty big. How could those two possibly...” I trailed off.
“I know! Everyone’s shocked!” Aelita cried. “We don’t know if it’s just one date or a blooming romance. Odd won’t tell us any more.”
I admit that I was getting into the gossip thing. I curled up under my blanket and held the phone closer to my ear. “So,” I said, “how did you find out about this?”
I heard a sipping noise from the other end. It sounded like Aelita was getting comfortable too, probably with her favorite drink, hot chocolate.
“Sissi told Ulrich,” she explained, “and Ulrich told me. I told Tania, she told Jean-Baptiste, he told Priscilla, and it was plain sailing from there.” More sipping. “You’re going to Japan tomorrow, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m not going anywhere. I have a great-aunt back in Tokyo whom I’d like to visit, but Dad says it would be better for me to stay here. Why do you ask, Aelita?”
Out of the blue I heard Mom’s voice: “Yumi dear!”
Aelita released a heavy sigh and took a long drink of chocolate. “It’s just that...I’m going to be lonely for Christmas. Everyone seems to be going somewhere tomorrow. I asked Ulrich if he would let me come with him to Germany, but he didn’t want me along.”
Though she couldn’t see, I nodded understandingly. “It would have been a bad idea to start with. You don’t speak German.”
“Yumi!” Mom again.
“I’m sorry,” I interrputed myself, “but I’ve gotta go, Aelita. See you later, okay?”
“Sure, bye.” Sip. Click.
A minute later, as I swept the living room floor as Mom had asked me to do, I thought about Odd and Sissi getting together. Of course Sissi wanted to tell everyone, but I thought it strange that Odd tried to keep it bottled up. That really wasn’t like him. In any case, I was reasonably glad they were getting along and then some. I hoped it worked out between them.
- - -
(Jeremie’s POV)
It was in the late afternoon of Christmas Eve that Odd burst into my room and screeched, “I can’t take it anymore!” I had been working on finding Franz Hopper peacefully. I really hadn’t expected this.
When I tried to calm Odd down, he leaped onto my bed and covered his head with my pillow. “It’s unbearable. They’re all after me,” he muttered.
I pulled the pillow off of his head. “Make sense, will you, Odd? Try to tell me what’s going on, because I’m lost here.”
After a lengthy pause, he sat up and took a deep breath. “I guess you heard about me and Sissi,” he began.
I shook my head.
Odd fiddled with my blanket and continued. “Well, we have a date tonight at 8:00.”
“Why?!”
“Because”--Odd was blushing feverishly--“we think that we really like each other. We’re going to that Café de Margerie tonight. I thought that people would be happy for me, especially you guys, my friends. But instead of being happy, no one will leave me alone. They’re always smothering me and asking me questions. Sissi is enjoying every second of her new popularity. But I can’t breath; I’m drowning in boarding school students! You’re a genius, right, Jeremie? What should I do now?” He buried his face in his hands.
It was insanity that he should ask me. First of all, I’ve never been on a date, even with Aelita; second, I’ve never dated Sissi, nor will I ever. So I was at a loss for words, however I knew I had to say something.
“Well, Odd...” Think, Jeremie, think! “Have you considered telling them to back off?”
Odd looked up at me. “You mean grabbing a fire extinguisher and waving at them?”
I said nothing. There was nothing to say. Out of all the words in the French language, I couldn’t pick out any to give to him. The scary thing is, I don’t know if it was merely speaker’s block or the weirdness of the concept of Odd brandishing a fire extinguisher at a crowd of students trying to dig the latest news on his date with Sissi.
Then it came to me, as though out of a dream. I stood up and announced with glee, “I have an idea!”
Odd waited.
“Why don’t you lie to the beautiful crowd? Tell them you’re not dating Sissi! Then, behind their backs, continue your plans.”
Odd made a wild lunge out of bed for the door. “Hey, that’s a great idea! You really are a genius!” he yelled merrily.
As I watched my friend disappear down the hallway, I realized it was good to be an advice-giver. I just hoped my advice worked.
- - -
(Odd’s POV)
I soon as Jeremie told me to lie, I was excited because I knew this could work. It was a brilliant plan! And I soon got a chance to put it into effect. The moment I confidently waltzed into the cafeteria for some fresh coffee, Sorya Abulabbas waved to me. I flew over to her table and said, “You called?”
I knew what she would say, and I was right on. “Hey Odd! I have to know. Is it true what everyone’s saying about you and Sissi?”
“No.” The word had never been so sweet. “No, it isn’t true, Sorya. I don’t know where that rumor started from, but it’s nothing more than that: a rumor.”
“But Sissi said that--”
I sighed. “Sissi is spreading that story because she wants me and knows she can’t have me. She’s just not hot enough for me. I’m going to get some coffee!”
On her days off, Rosa let us wander into the kitchen - even against school regulations - to get a snack or something. Kitchen drinks are very admired because they are 10 times fresher than that slime from the vending machine. As I now meandered into the kitchen, out of the corner of my eye I caught Sissi chatting with Millie and Tamiya near the coffee. I had to drink coffee today, but Tamiya was holding a recording device and Millie was scribbling into a notepad.
Millie spotted me. “Hi, Odd!” she said sweetly. “We were just talking with your new girlfriend! We’re covering the big event tonight at 8:00. Care to contribute a word or two?”
New girlfriend? Sissi was clearly exaggerating; a date didn’t make us a couple. But I knew I couldn’t say to Millie and Tamiya what I had just said to Sorya. At least, not in front of Sissi. And the sight of more students asking me about the date was beginning to sicken me. I needed coffee immediately.
I approached them and made a waving gesture. Sissi stepped back. I grabbed a cup, picked up the coffee pot, and poured steamy deliciousness into the cup. I downed the whole cup without either sugar or cream, feeling alive and refreshed.
“Actually, you know, we aren’t going on a date,” I responded, with a wink at Sissi.
Tamiya’s eyebrows went up. “What do you mean, Odd?”
“I mean just what I say. It’s just a lie. We’re not dating.” Another wink at Sissi.
“What are you talking about?!” Sissi squealed furiously. Obviously she didn’t pick up on it. “After we made all those plans! I can’t believe you, Odd Della Robbia!”
“Sissi, I wasn’t going to...”
“I don’t want to hear it! The date is officially off! Write that down, Millie! Off!” Sissi stormed out of the kitchen, adding, “I never want to hear from you again!” I heard the door slam shut.
I remembered that Tamiya was still recording. When the two amateur journalists published the Kadic Academy Herald this Friday, they would include every word Sissi screamed. Not only had I just lost a date with a kind, beautiful, smart girl, but now everything she said to me would be printed in a small-time newspaper for the whole school to read.
I definitely had a bone to pick with Mr. Jeremie Belpois.
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