"He's been sulking up in our dorm for two days now. He's really down in the dumps...I don't know how to snap him out of it. I've tried everything!" 

"I wonder why."

"I don’t know, but he hasn’t said a word…not even to yell at me!"

Jeremie turned up from his laptop and glanced at Odd then at Aelita. "I’ve noticed that Yumi hasn’t said much lately either." he added.

"Come to think of it," Aelita replied. "I haven’t seen much of Yumi period."

"Oh come now," Sissi’s voice was heard. "Don’t tell me you don’t know."

All eyes turned to her. "Know what?" Aelita asked.

A twinkle appeared in her eyes. No good could come of that. "Yumi’s dating William."

"What?!" the three of them exclaimed simultaneously.

A chuckle escaped past Sissi’s lips. "Uh huh." her face then contoured with one of anger. "And because of her, poor Ulrich is depressed."

Odd walked up to her, a stern look on his face. "Why should we believe you?"

Sissi shrugged. "See for yourself."

The girl motioned the three of them to look toward the vending machines. They all gasped as they saw William and Yumi standing there…hand in hand.

"What?"

"I can’t believe it."

"No wonder Ulrich’s sulking."

The three sentences overlapped each other as Sissi folded her arms over her chest. "What did I tell you?"

Odd turned and saw that Sissi was clearly enjoying seeing Yumi with William…and he knew why.

"Sissi…leave Ulrich alone." he warned. "He doesn’t need an airhead like you bothering him right now."

"Is that a threat?" Sissi asked, clearly not deterred by Odd’s statement. Before waiting for an answer, she turned and walked off.

They gave another quick glance at Yumi before scooting away from the area. While the three of them stood by their usual bench, Jeremie let out a slow whistle. "Now we know where Yumi’s been."

"And why Ulrich has been so miserable the past couple of days." Odd added.

"Do you think that Yumi dating William has something to do with that argument that she and Ulrich had a few days ago?" Aelita asked.

"It has to be." Jeremie replied. "That was when they both began to act so strangely."

Odd sighed. "Why don’t they just admit they like each other and stop this stupid fighting?"

Jeremie and Aelita could only shake their heads. "I wish I knew."

*~*~*

"You okay Yumi?"

Yumi glanced up to see William looking at her. Worried lines creased his forehead as he scanned her face.

Yumi flashed a half-hearted smile at him. "Yeah…sure…"

"You don’t seem alright." he pointed out. "Something bothering you?"

"No." Yumi replied. "No. I was just thinking."

William grabbed her hand, trying to reassure her. "Can I ask what about?"

"You can ask…" Yumi replied. "But that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m going to answer."

William smiled back at her. "Fair enough." He put a coin into the vending machine and pressed the "hot chocolate" button. While it was dispensing, Yumi glanced around the school grounds. As she was looking around, she thought she saw Ulrich off by himself. She sighed…even though she was still angry with him, she couldn’t help but miss him. She had not seen him in two days.

"You okay?" William asked as he heard her sigh.

Quickly, Yumi turned back to William and nodded. "Yeah."

"Are you sure?" he asked, concerned. "You haven’t been acting like yourself lately. Does this have something to do with Ulrich?"

"No!" Yumi replied quickly. Too quickly. She calmed a bit and smiled at him again. "No, I’m fine. I’m just tired that’s all. Teachers are piling on homework again."

"Ugh, yes." William replied, grabbing the hot chocolate. After taking a sip of the extremely hot liquid, he wrinkled his nose in disgust.

Yumi couldn’t help but laugh. "What’s the matter?"

"Yuck!" William spat out as he dumped the liquid into a nearby trash container. "That has got to be the worst hot chocolate yet!"

"That’s why I hardly buy anything from this vending machine." Yumi responded. She felt William’s hand grab her own and she couldn’t help but blush. Tilting her head forward, she let her black hair hang into her face so that he couldn’t see as the two of them walked away. Neither noticed that the electric plug the vending machine was plugged into began to short out.

*~*~*~*

Ulrich sat back on one of the many benches that littered the school yard. He looked down toward his feet as if studying them but in all reality, he was off in a totally different place all together. Why was Yumi doing this to him? Couldn’t she tell how much she was tearing him up inside? It was obvious…she didn’t like him.

The sound of footsteps approaching interrupted his reveries. Glancing up, he mentally groaned as he saw Sissi approaching. Great…if I didn’t have enough problems…

"Oh Ulrich…" she started sympathetically.

"What do you want?" he snapped angrily. He was not in the mood.

Sissi appeared to be taken back by his harshness, but only momentarily. Regaining her composure, she slowly walked toward Ulrich and sat down next to him. Without turning his head, Ulrich glanced at the girl. She was unusually quiet; this unnerved him.

For a moment she said nothing, but then she turned her head slightly so that she was nearly facing him. "Ulrich…I’m sorry about Yumi and William hooking up."

He winced as he heard those words. It just sounded so wrong to him, he couldn’t even begin to describe the feelings those words evoked. But then again, Sissi wasn’t saying those words with the snobbery she usually did…she actually sounded sincere and sympathetic.

"I really am." she added as if she were not sure she convinced him. "I just wanted to let you know that if you need someone to talk to, I’m here to listen."

Before Ulrich could make any sort of reply, she got up and walked off, leaving Ulrich dumbfounded. He assumed that she would try her best to get him to go to that concert with her, not offer her condolences!

He shook his head as he watched her walk away and decided that she was just being nice to him so that he would end up dating her. That was not going to happen.

He let his eyes wander away from the shrinking figure to scan across the school grounds. Nothing really registered with him and instead he just appeared to be in some sort of daydream.

However, the sound of the school bell ringing snapped him out of the trance. Slowly, he got to his feet and made his way to his class without stopping and waiting for the others.

*~*~*~*

In class, Odd glanced around and noticed that his friend wasn’t sitting anywhere near him…in fact, Ulrich was sitting at the back of the class alone.

"Wow, he’s really down." Odd whispered to Jeremie and Aelita, who were both sitting in front of him.

Aelita and Jeremie both nodded simultaneously. "I wish that there was something that we could do." Aelita commented in a whisper.

"So do I." Jeremie agreed.

"Well, we could always break up Yumi and William and have Yumi and Ulrich admit that they like each other. Then we wouldn‘t have any more problems." Odd suggested, half jokingly.

"Yeah right." Jeremie replied. "That’s not going to happen."

"Odd, Jeremie!" Mrs. Hertz scolded.

"Yes ma’am?" the two replied simultaneously.

"If you have more important things to discuss, I suggest you do it outside of the classroom." the angry teacher replied.

"Sorry Mrs. Hertz." the boys replied sheepishly.

No more conversation was made for the remainder of the class period. Soon Mrs. Hertz’s class was over and Odd, Jeremie, and Aelita made their way out of the classroom with Ulrich lagging behind. He quickly took a seat on a bench close by, not saying one word to the others.

Aelita turned and glanced at him a moment before she turned to Jeremie. "I’m going to go talk with Ulrich. I don’t know how much help I can be, but it wouldn’t hurt to try."

"Alright Aelita." Jeremie responded. "Odd and I will be over by the vending machine if you need us."

Aelita smiled and nodded before turning and walking back to Ulrich. "Hi." she greeted him, but no response was made to her friendly gesture. "Nice weather we’re having, isn’t it?"

Ulrich’s eyes didn’t even look up at her to signal that he was annoyed with her. Aelita sighed as she sat down. She put her hand on his shoulder, but knew that it would not get any acknowledgement from him. Or so she though. A huge sigh escaped past Ulrich’s lips and his gaze moved up to her.

"Do you want to talk?" she asked, knowing that if he felt like it, he would.

"Not really." Ulrich replied. "I just want people to leave me alone." He didn’t say it meanly to her.

"You know Ulrich, it’s not to late to tell Yumi how you feel you know."

"Yes it is. I’ve already missed my chance."

"No you haven’t."

"Yes I have. She’s dating William now!" Ulrich glanced up as he heard Yumi’s voice off in the distance. His eyes scanned for her and locked on her. She was laughing at something William had said. "See?" he asked Aelita. "She’s so happy! I couldn’t do that to her."

Aelita managed to smile at him. "Listen Ulrich, Yumi likes you just as much as you like her. Time will show you two if you are meant to be."

"Time has already shown me that we’re not." Ulrich countered.

"That’s not true." Aelita hastened a reply. "Whether you two are aware of it now or not, you both care for each other very deeply. You’ll see. I promise."

Ulrich sighed. "If you say so."

"Come on." Aelita urged. "Sitting here alone, sulking isn’t going to do you any good. Come hang out with Odd, Jeremie, and me…take your mind off it."

"I doubt that my mind will just wander off the topic like that." Ulrich replied as he got to his feet. "But I think I will hang out."

Aelita smiled again at him. He turned his head and glanced at her. "How did you get so knowledgeable about human emotions?"

She shrugged in response. "I have no idea."

"Thanks Aelita. You are a good friend."

*~*~*~*~*~*