“To be good at any sport you must know you’re opponent’s weakness” Jim said, going threw his lecture.

        “Who knew Jim would actually make since today.” Odd said to his friends. 

       “If you’re going to go against any opponent, make sure you know your weakness and avoid it when playing uh…” Jim started to loose his train of thought. 

       “You talked too soon Odd.” Jeremie said. 

       “Hey, look at it this way, if Xana ever takes lessens from Jim, we’ll have the upper hand.” Ulrich said. 

       “Stern, Della Robbia, Belpois.” Jim called.

        The three friends looked up and Jim said, “You three will go up against Le Goff, Gauthier, and Xao in the stick pass. Get into position.”

        Jeremie and Julian Xao started out with the batons. Down the track was Odd and Romain Le Goff and to finish with was Ulrich and Theo Gauthier.

        “Remember,” Jim said as he saw they were ready, “you go on the word “go” not on “ready” and not on “set” alright, ready! Set! Go!”  

       Julian made it to Romain long before Jeremie made it to Odd, but Odd was able to make up the time getting it to Ulrich before Romain was able to get it to Theo, but only a second differents. Theo and Ulrich made off for the finish line where Jim stood.

        Ulrich crossed the finish line just a step before Theo did, causing them to win.

        Ulrich and Odd walked into Jeremie’s room after classes were finished for the Wednesday and sat down on his bed to wait for him. The five had planed to go into town that afternoon to see a movie that had just come out and was supposed to be in 3-D.

         “So, what movie are we going to watch?” Ulrich asked. 

       “How should I know?” Odd asked, looking at his friend. “Yumi said it was going to be a surprise.”

        Yumi walked in and threw her books onto the bed, almost hitting Ulrich as a paper fell out and onto the floor. 

       “Hey!” Ulrich said, almost falling onto Odd as he avoided the rage and books. “Have issues in English?” 

       “Sorry Ulrich. Ya I am.” Yumi said as she went over to Jeremie’s chair and sat down in it, backwards. “Mrs. Kensington wants us to write a poem in English. I can’t even rhyme in Japanese, much less English.” 

       “You could use Free Verse.” Odd said as he put his hands behind his head and leaned back on the wall. “That’s what I do all the time.” 

       Ulrich looked down and saw the paper. He reached down and picked it up only to find out it was all in English. “Looks like you’re finding it pretty easy here.” Ulrich said, trying to translate it into French. 

       Odd looked at the paper only to have Yumi snatch it away from them and stuffed it back into her English book. Her checks were red.

        Odd smiled as he leaned back, him being able to translate a lot into French pretty quickly do to the fact that his family lived in New Zealand. The door opened again and Aelita and Jeremie walked in.  

      “Hey Yumi, what’s this movie we’re going to see?” Aelita asked as they dropped their stuff to the ground.  

       “You’ll see went we get there.” Yumi said, smiling.

         The five got to the theater and Yumi took them straight threw, having already bought the tickets. Odd went straight to the food stand and bought a big thing of popcorn, two boxes of candies, and a soda. 

       They got into the theater just in time to find the lights going down. They rushed to five empty seats and sat down.

        They put on their paper glasses as the previews started up.

        Soon, the movie was over and they headed out of the theater.

        “I don’t see what was so big about the 3-D thing.” Jeremie said as they headed to Yumi’s house.

        “What are you talking about!” Odd asked, still hipped up from all the sugar he ended up eating. “They shot at us with a laser gun!” 

       “They came out of the screen.” Ulrich said. “That was so cool.” 

       “No they didn’t.” Jeremie said. “I didn’t even have to wear the stupid glasses, the 3-D didn’t work.” 

       “Maybe people that wear glasses can’t see the 3-D effect.” Aelita offered.

         “I guess.” Jeremie said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

         “Ahh!” Yumi yelled as she was pushed forward by something unseen. 

       Everyone turned around only to see a flash of purple as Ulrich and Yumi disappeared.  

       “What was that?” Odd asked as he looked around, trying to see whatever it was that took Yumi and Ulrich.

        Jeremie walked over to a bench and pulled out his laptop. He opened it up and looked at the screen.

         “Xana?” Aelita asked.

        Jeremie nodded his head. “What ever he wants to do, he’s started.” 

       “So we just go on the counter attack.” Odd said.

        “Ugh, what happened?” Yumi asked as she opened her eyes. She sat up and found that she was laying on a mettle floor and the air was thin.

        She stud up and looked around the windowed room she was in and found Ulrich on the floor, unconscious.

        Yumi walked over to the window and saw what looked like Paris, far below them. Yumi backed up, her slight fear of heights kicking in. “Ulrich’s not going to like this.” She said to herself. 

       “Uhg.”

        Yumi turned around and saw Ulrich getting up. She went over to him and said, “Morning Sleeping Beauty, I think Xana’s taking lessens from Jim.”  

      “Why you say that?” Ulrich asked as he looked around. “Where are we anyway?” 

       “I think on top of the Eiffel Tower, so don’t look down.” Yumi said, making Ulrich stop before getting to the window. 

       “Nice, he got the two with the height issues.” Ulrich said as he turned around to face Yumi.

        Machinery started to move, getting their attention to the walls as they started to move inward.

        “Great, Xana wants us to get squashed to death.” Yumi said as she saw what was happening.

        “I hope everything’s going well on Lyoko.” Ulrich said.

        “Einstein, a little help would be appreciated over here.” Odd said as he shot at the Tarantulas from the overboard as he flew over them.

        “I’m working as fast as I can.” Jeremie said, his fingers going fast over the keyboard.

         Jeremie glanced over at the screen to his right and saw what Odd was going against. Five Tarantulas were guarding the tower. “Odd, two are going to Aelita!” 

       “I see them.” Odd said, leaning backwards as he went back to Aelita.

        “Maybe I can distract them.” Aelita said as Odd stopped beside the rock she was hiding behind and brought up his shield as one of the Tarantulas shot at them.  

       “Go ahead Princess.” Odd said.

        Aelita got down on her knees, singing. A clone of herself appeared next to them as she sang.

        Aelita stud up and looked at her clone. “You go over to the left and get the Tarantula’s attention.” 

       Aelita’s clone nodded her head and ran away, yelling at the Tarantulas.

         Three of the five started to shot at the fake Aelita as Odd and the real Aelita got on the overboard.

        “Look out!” Jeremie cried as they came around their protection of trees and rocks. “The Scyphozoa’s right in front of you.”

        “You could’ve given some more of a warning!” Odd said as he tried to avoid it and shoot at it at the same time. 

       It’s tentacles went to them and knocked Odd off of the overboard. Odd fell to the ground and landed on his hands and feet only to look up and see it grab Aelita.  

      “Aelita!” Odd and Jeremie cried at the same time. 

       Odd found himself dodging lasers from the other two Tarantulas as they came over to protect the Scyphozoa while it took Aelita’s memory.

~~~ 

       “What a way to die.” Ulrich said as he pushed both of his hands against the two walls, closing them off into a smaller and smaller room. His arms not even outstretched, but close to his chest.

        “We’re not dead yet.” Yumi said. She walked over to the windows and reared her elbow towards it, braking it.

        “What are you doing?” Ulrich asked, moving towards her as the walls got closer and closer to his body.

        “We’re getting out of here, your vertigo’s just going to have to deal with it.” Yumi said, sounding determined as she broke off the flakes of glass from around the hole with the other arm.

        Ulrich looked at her elbow she had used to brake the window and saw blood and cut clothing.

        Yumi looked out the window and saw that there was a ledge right underneath the window. “Come on.” 

       Yumi grabbed the top of the broken open window and put one foot outside. She put the other foot on the same ledge and started to go sideways so that Ulrich could get out.

        Ulrich looked down only to see everything sway. “Ugh, I hate heights.” 

       “Come on Ulrich.” Yumi said, her voice full of pain and worry.

        Ulrich grabbed the top of the window and glanced behind him to see that the space was getting smaller and smaller for his feet. He gripped the mettle as tight as he could and swung his feet over to the ledge at the last second.

         Yumi sighed as she saw him steady and glanced up only to see purple sparks heading down from the very top of the Eiffel Tower and heading down to them. “Ulrich! Look out!” 

       Ulrich looked up only to get shocked by the electricity controlled by Xana. Yumi let go with one hand and went to grab Ulrich’s belt as he let go of the tower.

         “Lose some weight!” Yumi said as she bared her teeth against the pain in her arms and her ripped up elbow.  

       Ulrich opened his eyes and saw how high they were up. “Just don’t let go, and we’ll be good.” Ulrich said as he tried to swing back to Yumi and the tower.

        Yumi started to pull back to herself only to feel her hand go numb. “NOO!” Yumi yelled as her hand let go, causing Ulrich and herself to fall.

~~~

         Odd shot at the Scyphozoa and hit it dead on, making it drop Aelita. It ran away and Odd went to Aelita. She opened her eyes and looked at Odd.  

       “Hurry to the tower.” Odd said as he looked up to a call from the Tarantulas that were heading to them. “I’ll cover you.” 

       Aelita nodded her head and headed to the tower. Odd turned to the Tarantulas and started to shoot at them. 

       Aelita made it to the tower and walked inside.

        Yumi saw the ground coming up fast, she looked over to Ulrich, who was falling next to her. She grabbed his hand and pulled him close for the last seconds of their life. 

       Ulrich face was full of fear and surprise as she pulled him closer and kissed him on his lips.

~~~

         Aelita floated up to the second platform and put her feet it. She walked to the center and put her hand on the screen.

~~~ 

       Ulrich put his arms around Yumi’s body and pulled her closer, expecting death a second away.

~~~ 

       “CODE: LYOKO” typed on the screen.

        “Tower deactivated.” Aelita said as the tower’s walls fell. 

       “Return to the past, NOW!” Jeremie yelled as he hit the enter button.

        The white bubble came up from the Holosphere and covered the whole world. It went over Yumi and Ulrich, just as Ulrich’s shirt touched the ground, stopping them before they hit bottom.

        “Hey Ulrich.” Yumi said as she walked into Jeremie’s room after classes. She pulled out a piece of paper from her pile and gave it to him. “Here, this is that poem I wrote for English.” 

       Ulrich took the page and saw that it was in French. “Thank you for translating it.” Ulrich said as he started to read.

        “So what was Xana’s attack?” Odd asked as Jeremie and Aelita walked into the room. 

       “Xana put us up in the Eiffel Tower and started to push us out.” Yumi said. “You guys couldn’t have cut it any closer because I’m sure we almost hit the ground when time reversed.”

        “Is free falling fun?” Aelita asked.

        “So, are we going to watch the movie again, or see another one?” Jeremie asked.  

      “That’s the good thing about the returns to the pasts.” Odd said. “You can pay for one movie and see two.”  

      Ulrich handed the paper back to Yumi and smiled. “Nice.” 

       “Thanks.” Yumi said, they both were blushing.

         “I’m not going to ask.” Jeremie said as he walked out of the room.        Yumi laid down the paper on her pile of stuff and followed her friends out of the room.

        The paper said, 

“Journey Not Taken Yet”

By Yumi Ishiyama

There was once a chance I haven’t taken.

Many things have come and gone,

But I still regret not taking the risk.

Our friends knew of our love,

But us, too shy.

Years have passed from that first sparing of Pencak Silat,

But we still haven’t said a word.

Soon I will be leaving this school and off to college

And he will still be here.

I wish I could tell him of my love,

But I fear it might be too late.

The sun sets on a beautiful France as another day passes,

Leaving us to the moon.

Maybe tonight I can get up the courage,

 Before it’s too late

We should be leaving for town soon to go and hang out.

Maybe, just maybe, I can pull him away from our friends

And tell him I love him.”

The End